Four of a family were killed while another was injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a CNG-run auto-rickshaw on the Cumilla-Noakhali regional highway on Thursday morning.
The deceased were identified as Bahar Mia, 50, his wife Parul Begum, daughter Jannatul Mawa, and his mother-in-law Golap Nahar. All the victims were occupants of the auto-rickshaw.
The accident occurred around 8am on the high-speed corridor near Kaliacho in Cumilla's Laksham upazila when the BRTC bus hit the auto-rickshaw.
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"The impact of the collision was such that it left Bahar and his mother-in-law dead on the spot," said Jasim Uddin, a sub-inspector at the Lalmai outpost of Laksham Highway Police.
Parul and her daughter Jannatul succumbed to their injuries on the way to Cumilla Medical College and Hospital, where the critically injured auto-rickshaw driver is currently undergoing treatment.
Police have seized the killer bus and the auto-rickshaw. However, the bus driver is on the run, said SI Jasim.
Road accidents in Bangladesh
As many as 413 lives were lost and 532 people sustained injuries in 379 road accidents across the country in November last year alone, according to a report of Road Safety Foundation (RSF), a body that campaigns for safer roads.
As per the RSF report, 407 people were killed in 346 road accidents in October 2021.
In November, motorcycle accidents turned out to be the deadliest as those alone caused the deaths of 184 people, which is 44.55% of the total fatalities.
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The total number of motorcycle accidents was 158 during the last month, which is 41.68% of the total accidents.
According to the RSF findings, at least 96 pedestrians were killed in road accidents, which account for 23.24% of the total deaths.
The RSF pointed out 10 major reasons behind the increasing number of road accidents -- faulty vehicles, reckless driving, scant regard for traffic rules and poor traffic management being some of them.