At least seven females, including three children, were killed as a speeding microbus carrying members of an Oman expatriate鈥檚 family plunged into a roadside canal in Begumganj upazila of Noakhali district early Wednesday.
The family members who survived the incident alleged that the microbus driver was sleeping before the crash.
The driver fled the spot soon after the accident.
The deceased are Oman expatriate Bahar Uddin鈥檚 daughter Mim, 2, nieces Lamia, 9, and Reshmi, 10, wife Kabita Begum, 30, sister-in-law Laboni Begum, 30, mother Khurshida Begum, 55, and maternal grandmother Foyzun Nesa, 80.
All of them are the residents of village Pashchim Chowpalli under Hazipara union in Lakshmipur district.
The police said that the microbus met the fatal accident when the family members were returning home after receiving Bahar Uddin at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. Bahar returned to the country from Oman and arrived at the airport Tuesday evening.
Chowmuhani fire service station officer Md Mozammel Haque said that the accident took place at about 5:30am when the microbus driver lost control over the steering on Noakhali-Lakshmipur regional highway in the Jagadishpur area and plunged into the roadside canal in the Chandraganj Dakshin Bazar area of the upazila.
He said that there were 11 people in the microbus and four of them, including the driver, managed to come out of the microbus soon after the accident, he said.
All seven trapped inside the vehicle are women and died on the spot, he continued.
Mozammel said that they, receiving the information, rushed to the spot and recovered the bodies and microbus from the canal.
The bodies were then handed over to the Chandraganj highway police, he said.
Chandraganj highway police station officer-in-charge Mobarak Hossain Bhuiyan said that the driver, who was among the four survivors, fled the scene after the accident.
He said that the other survivors alleged that the driver was sleepy. 鈥楾his is primarily assumed as the reason behind the accident,鈥� he said.
He said that the survivors received minor injuries.
鈥楽ome of the family members told us that they would file a case with Begumganj Police Station in this connection, he added.
He said that they kept the seized microbus at the highway police station.
The Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh, in a statement on Wednesday, said that the casualties on the roads would not stop until the reform of the entire road transport sector.
The association said that 20 to 30 people were losing their lives in 50 road crashes across the country on average a day due to disorder, indiscipline and chaos on roads.
It said that the victims and their families were not getting justice and compensation due to lack of good governance.