The bend at Chunti Jangalia in Lohagara had already taken lives that week. On Wednesday morning, around 7:30, it took more.
A Relax Paribahan bus came around the curve, and the driver braked. The vehicle swerved into an oncoming microbus. Within seconds a second microbus drove into the back of the first one, according to a bdnews24 account quoted in the Financial Express. At least 10 people died, among them two children, and five were hurt. Seven were killed where they sat, Shuvoranjan Chakma, who heads the Dohazari Highway Police Station, said. The rest died in hospital in Chattogram and at the Lohagara health complex. Later reporting from bdnews24 raised the toll to 11.
A family on the way to the coast
UNB reported that the microbuses were heading from Kishoreganj toward Cox’s Bazar, and that every one of the dead had been a passenger in them. Among the dead was a family who lived in Dhaka’s Mirpur. The father, Rafiqul Islam Shamim, his wife Lutfun Nahar Shumi, their daughters Liana, 8, and Anisha, 14, and a cousin all died. Their daughter Tasnia Islam Prema, 18, survived the first hours and died in hospital on Friday.
Third crash in three days
This was not the first disaster on that stretch. On Monday, Eid day, a collision 30-35 yards from the Wednesday scene killed five. On Tuesday, two microbuses flipped into a roadside ditch and 12 people were hurt. Sixteen people died and at least 30 were injured in three accidents within 48 hours, bdnews24 said.
Police offered explanations that pointed at speed. Chakma said the road slopes down for vehicles coming from Cox’s Bazar and runs straight toward the site, so traffic moves fast in both directions, and that both vehicles had been speeding. He also noted that the dead microbus driver was an elderly man who had been on the road since the night before, coming from Dhaka. Delwar Hossain Miah, the Highway Police chief and an additional inspector general, said the bus driver was overloaded and “a bit drowsy,” and that salt water may have made the road slippery.
Highway Police registered a case under the Road Transport Act. By Thursday police still had not found the bus driver.
Sources
- Road crash in Ctg's Lohagara leaves 10 dead (UNB)
- Accidents at same spot in Ctg kill 15 in 2 days (Financial Express)
- Lohagara crash: Police unable to track down bus driver (bdnews24)
