BIRDEM doctor, wife and son die on trip to visit ill mother in Gopalganj crash

Dr Basudeb Saha, an anaesthesiologist at BIRDEM General Hospital in Dhaka, started for his hometown Gopalganj with his wife Shibani Saha and son Swapnil Saha on Saturday morning to see his ailing mother.

Basudeb and Shibani’s daughter stayed at their home in Farmgate to prepare for her medical college exams.

The doctor posted a selfie with Shibani and Swapnil on Facebook as they were crossing the Padma river by a ferry.

A couple of hours later, he was 20 km away from his family home in Gopalganj when a tragedy struck.

All three, along with the driver of their car and four other people, died in a road accident involving the car, a motorcycle and a bus around 11am.

The other victims of the accident on Mawa-Khulna Road in the Miltonbazar area of Kashiani Upazila are driver Aziz Mia, Firoze Molla, his wife Ruma Begum, Anik Mia, and his wife Jasmine Akter. One of the other couples were on the motorcycle.

Basudeb’s daughter, who studies at Sir Salimullah Medical College, travelled to Gopalganj with her maternal uncle later upon hearing the news of the accident, said Nazimul Islam, a joint director of BIRDEM Hospital. Swapnil was a student of Dhaka’s Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology.

“Basudeb posted a photo with his family on social media just before the accident and left this world. His death has devastated his colleagues at BIRDEM. They are having difficulty doing regular tasks.”

The BIRDEM senior medical officer was a student of Chattogram Medical College’s 31st batch.

Dr Faisal Iqbal Chowdhury, general secretary of the Bangladesh Medical Association or BMA in Chattogram who knew Basudeb for a long time, wrote on Facebook: “After getting the news, his memories are making my heart ache. May the Lord keeps him well on the other side.”

Later he told bdnews24.com, “When I saw the news of the accident on TV, I had no idea the car belonged to Basudeb. He was one batch junior to me at college. When I was the president of Chhatra League, he was my committee’s vice president. He was a very nice person.”

The BMA issued a statement mourning Basudeb.

SPEEDING CAUSED CRASH

Gopalganj Deputy Commissioner Shahida Sultana said the car was travelling very fast and the high speed caused the accident.

Sub-Inspector Sirajul Islam of Kashiani police said Anik and Jasmine were headed to Gopalganj town. The bus, which started from Barguna, tried to make way for a small passenger vehicle, locally made and called Nosiman, and the crash occurred.

“The collision caused Basudeb’s car to slam into a rice threshing machine beside the road and was left crumbled, while the bus toppled over after crashing into a tree.”

The accident left 25 others injured. Two of them are in critical condition and the others were given first aid.

Md Shahidul Alam, a bus passenger, said he was near the tail-end of the vehicle with his son.

“The bus driver could not keep control as it was going fast and tipped over in an instant.”

Shahida inspected the accident site later. “Initial investigation found the accident was caused by the rice thresher and car’s speeding,” she said.