Head-on collision kills 8 in Bangladesh

DHAKA, May 9 (NsNewsWire) — At least eight people were killed as two speeding buses had a head-on collision on a highway at Bangladesh’s southwestern Rajbari district on early Friday, according to a senior police officer.

“Eight persons died on the spot while 20 to 25 others injured,” said Ahsan Habib, assistant superintendent of police in Rajbari district, some 118 km away from capital Dhaka.

The accident occurred at about 4:00 a.m. local time, Habib said, adding the reason of the accident was not known yet.

He said all the injured were rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment, reports Xinhua.

Bangladesh has one of the highest fatality rates for road accidents in the world due mainly to shoddy highways, poorly maintained vehicles, violation of traffic rules by inept drivers and lack of monitoring of the traffic department.

According to latest study of Accident Research Institute of Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology, some 2,000 to 3, 000 people are killed in road accidents in Bangladesh every year, of which about 75 percent fatalities occur in rural areas.