Three people were killed and at least 15 others injured when a passenger bus collided head-on with a sand-laden dump truck on the Chandpur–Comilla regional highway on Tuesday morning.
The accident occurred at around 8am in the Baniacho area of Shahrashti Upazila in Chandpur, according to eyewitnesses and fire service officials. The collision involved a sand-carrying dump truck travelling towards Comilla and an Al-Arafa passenger bus travelling from Dinajpur to Hajiganj.
The impact was severe, leaving the bus badly crushed. The drivers of both vehicles and the bus driver’s assistant were killed at the scene.
The deceased were identified as Abdul Wahab, 40, the dump truck driver; Kamal, 35, the bus driver from Gaibandha; and Shovon, 30, the bus driver’s assistant from Bagerhat.
Soon after the crash, a rescue team from the Shahrashti Fire Service reached the scene and began extracting passengers and other victims trapped inside the damaged vehicles. Fire service personnel worked for nearly an hour to complete the rescue operation.
At least 15 people sustained injuries in the collision. Most of the injured were taken to Comilla Medical College Hospital with assistance from local residents. Three seriously injured people were rescued by the fire service and taken to Shahrashti Upazila Health Complex for initial treatment.
Aklima Jahan, an official at Shahrashti Upazila Health Complex, said some of the injured were in critical condition because of heavy blood loss. After receiving initial treatment, the three critically injured patients were referred to Comilla Medical College Hospital for more advanced medical care.
The crash caused disruption on the regional highway as rescue operations were carried out and the damaged vehicles were dealt with. Such head-on collisions can cause particularly severe injuries because of the force generated when two vehicles travelling in opposite directions collide.
Shahrashti police later took the three bodies to the police station, said Officer-in-Charge Mir Mahbubur Rahman. Police also seized both the bus and the dump truck following the accident.
The circumstances that led to the collision were not immediately clear. Police are expected to examine the vehicles and gather accounts from witnesses as part of the process of determining how the crash occurred.
