A Cox’s Bazar-bound picnic bus crashed into a roadside tree at Lemua on Dhaka-Chattogram Highway in Sadar upazila early Thursday, killing passengers and injuring at least 20 others.
Police identified the deceased as Opu, 35, and Sujon Mia, 28, from Bikrampur; Iqbal, 38, and Shamim, 30, from Dhaka’s Mirpur; Ripon, 30, from Madaripur; Munna Khan, 30, from Narayanganj; Faysal, 15, of Narayanganj and Shahadat Hossain, 28, from Feni.
Police super of Feni Nurunnabi said six of them died on the spot after the ‘Prime Paribahan’ bus from Dhaka dashed the tree. Of the injured, a man succumbed to his injuries while being taken to hospital while another at the hospital.
Some locals of Mirpur in the capital arrange picnic to different tourist spots across the country after every Eid. This time they arranged it in Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban.
They hired 15 buses to send the picnickers for Tk 3,000 per person in phases.
As part of it, a bus carrying picnickers left Mirpur around 2am on Thursday and met the fatal accident.
Fifteen of the passengers of the bus got into it at Mirpur while 30 others from Adamjee of Narayanganj. The passengers fell asleep after taking snacks by the highway around 4am.
“Most of the passengers on the bus were asleep when it dashed the tree, turning the cheerful journey into a tragedy,” said Iqbal who was injured in the accident.
“We heard a big bang and things got shattered within moments,” said Rumi Begum.
Another passenger Nargis who sustained injuries said she along with her brother was going to Cox’s Bazar on Eid vacation. “Although I survived the accident, my brother remained missing,” she said.
Azam Khan said both he and his father Kabir Ahmed received injuries in the accident and the former was sent to Dhaka for better treatment as his condition was serious.
Faysal’s brother Zaker who was getting fainted again and again said his brother, a Class-VIII student, was going on the picnic along with his friends.
Roads and highways in Bangladesh are always perilous. Every day many people lose their lives in road crashes.
Today (Thursday), at least 16 people were killed and over 80 others injured in road accidents, including this one, in four districts, dashing the dreams of many families.