33 killed in road crashes in 4 days

At least 33 people were killed in 19 road accidents in 15 districts in the last four days till Tuesday.

The accidents took place in Tangail, Naogaon, Dhaka, Barishal, Khulna, Manikganj, Natore, Brahmanbaria, Chuadanga, Noakhali, Panchagarh, Bogura, Gazipur, Chattogram and Narayanganj districts.

Of the deceased, seven were killed in Tangail, six in Chattogram, three each in Gazipur and Noakhali, two each in Barishal, Khulna and Chuadanga and one each died in Naogaon, Dhaka, Manikganj, Natore, Brahmanbaria, Panchagarh, Bogura and Narayanganj.

Secretary General of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury said that they generally count road accidents for 14 days before and after any Eid.

For this year’s Eid-ul-Azha, they began counting of road and other accidents from July 4, he said, adding that the overall road accidents dropped by about 50 percent in the nine days from July 4 to July 12 compared to the last year.

Mozammel said the prime reason behind the fall in road accidents was the ban on the inter-district movement of motorcycles.

He said they contacted Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Pangu Hospital, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, Chattogram Medical College Hospital and other main and divisional government hospitals to know about the number of patients of road accidents.

The BJKS secretary general said all the hospitals’ data show that the number of such patients was less than those of the Eid-ul-Azha vacation last year.

On average 200 people who suffered injuries in road accidents were admitted to National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR), also known as Pangu Hospital, every day during Eid-ul-Azha vacation last year, he said, adding that the number was, however, only 60 in the last four days.

Chattogram Medical College Hospital received about 100 wounded people every day last year, which was only 100 in the last four days, Mozammel said.

In Tangail, two people were killed as a bus slammed a battery-run auto they were travelling in on the Dhaka-Tangail highway at Rabna Bypass on Tuesday noon.

The deceased were identified as Mousumi Akhter, 35, and her niece Riya Moni, 5.

Two other passengers of the auto were injured in the accident, said Nabin, in-charge of Tangail General Hospital police outpost.

In Naogaon, an auto-van driver was killed as a BRTC bus hit his vehicle on the Naogaon-Rajshahi regional highway in Sadar upazila on Tuesday noon.

The deceased was identified as Kasim Uddin, 65, son of late Kudrat Ullah of Gazipur village of the upazila.

Jamal Uddin, sub-inspector of Naogaon Police Station, said the body was sent to Sadar Hospital for autopsy.

In Dhaka, Saiful Islam Jewel, 44, a businessman, was run over by a bus of Greenline Paribahan at Postagola Bridge around 1:00pm on the day.

In Barishal, a lorry driver named Moktar Molla, 50, was killed in a collision between a bus and his lorry at Gournadi around 6:45 am.