Five people have been killed and nine others injured after a microbus of vacationers returning from Sylhet to Ashulia collided with a truck in Sadar upazila of Narsingdi district.
The incident occurred on the Panchdona-Ghorashal-Tongi regional road at Sakura Intersection of the upazila around 12:30 am on Sunday, said Narsingdi Additional Superintendent of Police Enamul Haque.
The victims were members of an extended family and hailed from the Jirab area of Dhaka’s Ashulia.
The dead have been identified as Ruby Akter, 33, her daughter Raima Khan, 5, her nephew Sadek Khan, 8, Mukti Akter, 30, and Rokeya Begum, 52, reports bdnews24.com.
Seven of the wounded have been identified as Razia, 40, Abdur Rashid, 40, Kazim Uddin, 42, Saifa, 12, Sharmin, 40, her daughter Israt Jahan, 8, and Shamsunnahar. Two others went unnamed.
According to Abdur Rashid, 14 members of the family hired the microbus for a trip to Sylhet from Ashulia.
They visited the Shahjalal and Shah Paran shrines before going to Jaflong. They were headed back to Sylhet when the accident occurred.
Their microbus got into a head-on collision with a speeding truck when it reached Narsingdi’s Sakura Intersection, he said. The microbus then veered off the road.
Fire service workers and locals recovered two bodies from the scene. Two others died after they were taken to hospital.
The injured were first taken to Narsingdi Sadar Hospital. Four of them were later transferred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
A local resident, Nannu Miah, said he heard a horrendous sound and turned to see the microbus crushed after the collision with the truck.
“Women and children were lying on the floor. We rushed over and tried to rescue them. We got a pickup truck to stop and take them to the hospital.”
“Four people were sent to Dhaka in critical condition,” said a doctor at Narsingdi Sadar Hospital. “All of them had injuries on their head.”
The Panchdona-Ghorashal-Tongi road was closed to traffic for some time due to debris from the accident, but police have since moved it.
Law enforcers have seized the truck involved in the accident.