Five young men returning from a wedding died after their car veered off the road and plunged into a pond in Shahrasti upazila of Chandpur district in the small hours of Wednesday.

The deceased were identified as Shah Poran Tushar, 22, son of Siddiqur Rahman, Shakil, 23, son of Rafiqul Islam, Rezaul Karim, 23, son of Babul Mia of Cumilla district, Nayan, 24, son of Abdul Khalek of Jashore district and Sagar Hossain, 24, son of Babul Hossain of Gazipur district.

The accident occurred around 12.45am when the five were returning to their homes in Cumilla from Chatkhil, where they had gone to attend a marriage ceremony.

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"The one at the wheel lost control of the vehicle, leading to the accident, killing all the occupants," Morshedul Alam Bhuiya, officer-in-charge of Shahrasti Model Police Station, said.

On information, a fire tender rushed to the spot and fished out the bodies as well as the ill-fated car.

Road accidents in Bangladesh

Road accidents in Bangladesh continue to claim hundreds of lives every year.

As many as 413 people were killed while 532 people sustained injuries in 379 road accidents across the country in November last alone, according to a report published in 2021.

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In another report released in February 2020, the World Bank said that Bangladesh needed to invest an estimated extra $7.8 billion over the next decade to halve its road crash fatalities.

The report attributed the high death rate on Bangladesh's roads to lack of investments in systemic, targeted, and sustained road safety programmes.