3 Rajshahi College students killed in bus accident

Three female students of Rajshahi College were killed and 22 more students were injured as the bus they were travelling in collided with another bus in front of the Katakhali Jute Mills under Paba upazila in Rajshahi on Sunday. Agitated Rajshahi College students blocked the road in front of the college protesting against the accident and demanding immediate arrest of the drivers, helpers and other staff of the buses. Rajshahi University Fire Service senior officer Shafikur Rahman said that a bus, named ‘Lucky’, carrying about 50 female students of Rajshahi College, plunged into a ditch after colliding head-on with a Rajshahi-bound Islam Paribahan bus at about 1:00pm. Drivers and helpers of both the buses managed to go away from the spot, about 6 kilometres away from the campus.

The bus, rented by college authorities for regular transportation of only female student, met the accident on its way to Baneswar via Talaimari, Binodpur and Katakhali from the college. Five units of the fire service took part in the rescue operation and extricated 25 students from the bus and rushed them to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital. Of them, Tania, Mahmuda and Sharmin, all Rajshahi College students and residents of Baneshor area of Rajshahi, succumbed to the injuries at about 2:00pm, doctors at the hospital said. As the news reached Rajshahi College, agitated students took to the street and blocked road in front of the college. Rajshahi College principal Habibur Rahman, along with a police contingent from Boalia police station, rushed the spot and managed the students to call off the protests assuring them of taking legal action against the people responsible. Habibur told New Age that they asked the law enforcement agencies to file a case and take necessary steps in this regard.

The college will mourn the deaths for four days while all academic activities for Monday have also been suspended, Habibur said. The college authorities formed a five-member body to probe the incident and asked the committee to submit the report in eight working days. Motihar police said that they filed a case against the drivers. Incidents of death of students in traffic accidents became alarming in the country. International Islamic University, Chittagong bachelor of business administration student Mozammel Kajal was killed being sandwiched between two buses in Dhaka and Islamic University student Towhidur Rahman Titu, was killed as a hired university bus ran over his head knocking him down while he was getting on another hired university bus in front of his campus on November 30. On February 15, seven schoolchildren died and 71 were injured as a picnic bus carrying them plunged into a ditch at Chaugachha in Jessore. Earlier, 43 students of Abu Torab High School, Abu Torab Primary School and Abu Torab Fazil Madrassah and two adults died on July 11, 2011 as a pick-up carrying them plunged into a roadside ditch at Mirsarai in Chittagong. Statistics reveals that Bangladesh has one of the highest fatality rate in road accidents. The World Health Organisation estimates that 20,000 people die every year on the country’s roads with hundreds of thousands seriously injured. Some 60 to 150 fatalities per 10,000 motor vehicles occur in Bangladesh compared to around 25, 16, 2 and 1.4 in India, Sri Lanka, USA and UK respectively. On October 21 at least 32 people died as two buses collided head on in Natore.

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