The bus left Barguna with just 10 passengers; no one from the district was killed in the Natore crash that claimed 14, but two from Barguna are injured in Rajshahi

A passenger bus named ‘RP Special Nice Paribahan’, travelling from Barguna towards Chapainawabganj, has met with a terrible road accident. In a collision with a sand-laden truck, 14 people including the driver and helper have so far been killed. However, no passenger who boarded from Barguna has been reported killed.

The accident happened at around 4:30am on Tuesday (October 20) at a place called Sarkarpara on the Natore-Pabna highway in Baraigram upazila of Natore. The bus collided with a Pabna-bound sand-laden truck coming from the opposite direction.

It has been learned that the bus left Barguna for Chapainawabganj at around 4pm on Monday. Ten passengers boarded the bus from Barguna municipal bus terminal. Later, one passenger boarded from Barisal, three from Subidkhali and three more from Bhanga in Faridpur.

Counting the Barguna terminal and various counters, a total of 15 passengers have been accounted for on the bus, it has been reported. Most of them got down at Magura, Faridpur and Kushtia. Three passengers who boarded from Barguna were on the bus to travel to Rajshahi and other places.

At least 30 passengers were injured in the accident. On receiving the news, police and fire service members reached the spot, rescued the injured and the dead, and sent them to Natore Sadar Hospital and Rajshahi Medical College Hospital.

Two passengers travelling from Barguna are under treatment at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital with serious injuries. They are A K M Fazlul Haque, working as manager of Karmasangsthan Bank in Barguna, and Md Zulfikar, working as a second officer of Grameen Bank in Barguna. On the other hand, no trace has yet been found of another woman passenger on the bus who travelled from Barguna.

Mosa. Lovely, wife of injured passenger A K M Fazlul Haque, said by mobile phone that their home is in Rajshahi. Her husband was coming from Barguna by bus towards Rajshahi. He suffered a head injury in the bus accident. The condition of his eyes is also not good. He is currently under treatment at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. Doctors have advised a CT scan for him, after which it will be understood what happens.

Jannatul Ferdous, daughter of Md Zulfikar, another injured passenger from Barguna, said by mobile phone that their home is in Natore. Her father was injured in the bus accident and is under treatment in hospital. However, he is able to speak. Doctors have also advised a CT scan for him.

Subrata, in-charge of the Barguna counter of RP Special Nice Paribahan, said the bus left Barguna at around 4pm on Monday. They later learned that the bus had collided with a sand truck. Although the bus driver and helper were killed in the incident, he had received no news of any passenger travelling from Barguna being killed. However, he had heard that two passengers from Barguna on the bus were injured and under treatment in hospital.

This accident, which claimed 14 lives, has again raised big questions about road safety in the country. The loss of so many lives in a head-on collision between a passenger bus and a sand-laden truck on a highway in the early hours has become a cause of deep grief for passengers and families.

Although there is no news of deaths among the Barguna passengers, families' anxiety has not eased over the treatment of the two injured and the search for one missing woman passenger. The condition of the two under treatment at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital will be known better once their CT scan results are available.

As rescue and treatment work continued after the accident, those concerned are waiting for further information on the detailed cause of and responsibility for the incident. Reconciling the full account of the passengers of the bus that left Barguna has also become the most urgent matter at this moment for families and counter officials.