Survivors blame driver’s recklessness for Mymensingh crash that killed five

The survivors of a road accident in Mymensingh have claimed that the microbus they were travelling on was way over speed-limit and had 18 passengers, including four children, on board in a vehicle with 11 seats.

At least five people were killed in the accident, and the rest sustained burned injuries of various degrees when the Dhaka-bound microbus from Mymensingh’s Dhobaura Upazila hit a highway-side pillar at 110 km per hour early on Monday in the district’s Trishal Upazila.

The driver of the microbus was attempting to overtake a coach on Dhaka-Dhobaura Upazila highway when he lost control of the wheels as one of the front tyres burst and sent the vehicle crashing into the pillar before going up in flames, claimed the survivors interviewed by bdnews24.com.

The driver Al Mamun, who managed to escape from the crashed vehicle, has since been on the run. The two-decade-old microbus provided coach-like services on the Dhaka-Dhobaura route.

Three of the survivors, still under treatment at Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn & Plastic Surgery, were in critical condition, while the rest were released from the hospital after receiving medical attention.

Asaduzzaman Shahin and Nasima Akhter, a couple who survived the accident but suffered burn injuries, said they were lucky to be sitting on the second row of the microbus as people in their row and the third managed to pull themselves out from the crashed microbus on fire. But the people in the back row could not.

“While I was getting out of the vehicle, I heard screams from some of the passengers from the back seat to rescue them. Something exploded at the back of the vehicle when I got out,” said Nasima.

"And it rolled onto the roadside ditch immediately afterwards. We didn’t get the opportunity to help them.”

Her husband, Shahin, said the deceased would have survived if driver Mamun had opened the sliding door instead of fleeing the scene.

When contacted, Md Ripon, the owner of the microbus, said to his knowledge the vehicle did not have any serious mechanical issues, despite being a very old model.

He also dismissed the notion that the explosion that burned down the vehicle was caused by the CNG cylinder installed at the back of the vehicle.

“It was the driver’s recklessness which caused the accident, nothing else,” said Ripon, who had a few of his relatives survive the accident.

Main Uddin, chief of Trishal Police Station, said a case had been filed in this connection.