Five of a family crushed to death as BRT project girder falls on passing car in Uttara

The prime minister sends condolences as a newly married couple of the family are hospitalised after the accident

Kamal TalukdarSenior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 15 August 2022, 11:34 AM
Updated : 15 August 2022, 03:13 PM

An 80-tonne concrete girder lifted by a crane under the government's Bus Rapid Transit project in Dhaka's Uttara came down on a passing car, killing five people of a family inside the vehicle.

Two other members of the family, a newly married couple, were rescued from the crushed vehicle and sent to the hospital after the accident occurred around 4:15pm Monday in front of the Paradise Tower on Jashimuddin Road, police said.

The crane carrying the heavy girder lost balance, tilted to one side and dropped it on the Gazipur-bound car, said Mohammad Mohsin, chief of Uttara West Police Station.

According to police and relatives, the car’s owner Rubel Mia, 60, his wife Fahima, 40, Fahima’s sister Jharna, 28, and Jharna’s two children, Jannat, 6, and Zakaria, 2 - all identified with a single name - were trapped inside. The bodies were recovered after the girder was removed around 7:15pm.

The other two riders, Rubel’s son Hridoy, 26, and Hridoy’s wife Riya Moni, 21, were in hospital care. They got married on Saturday. The full names of the victims were not immediately available.

Hridoy’s cousin Rakib Hossain said the family members were travelling to Riya’s home in Ashulia’s Khejurbagan. Some other members of the family were on a microbus.

Riya’s cousin Shubho said he was on the microbus and they were caught in the jam created by the accident. Someone called from the scene and informed them about the accident.

“We walked out of the jam and found the car crushed,” he said.

He also expressed anger over the delay in removing the girder as he believes some of the victims would have survived had the girder been removed immediately.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed deep condolences over the casualties in the accident and prayed for the swift recovery of the injured.

Mohsin, chief of Uttara West Police Station, said two units of the fire service started a rescue operation. The bodies were sent to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital mortuary.

Brig Gen Sajjad Hussain, director general of the Fire Service, said the rescuers cut parts of the girder and pulled out three bodies first. Later, another crane was brought to remove the girder.

“This is terribly sad. It’ll take some time to get to the bottom of the accident,” BRT Project Director Elias Shah said.

However, Mohsin complained that no one from the project arrived at the scene and provided assistance to police.

The accident also blocked Uttara-bound traffic from the Kuril flyover. Saiful Haque, a deputy commissioner of traffic police, said the situation normalised after five and a half hours, around 9:45pm.

An official from the Bridges Division said: “The BRT project is being carried out in several phases. The Uttara House Building to Cherag Ali segment is under the Bridges Division and the House Building-Airport part is under the Road Transport and Highways Division.”

The place where the accident occurred is under the Road Transport and Highways Division.

BRT is a concept of dedicated bus lanes implemented in many cities worldwide. In Dhaka, the north section of Bangladesh’s first BRT Line 3 corridor will cover a distance of 20.2 km between Shahjalal International Airport, Tongi and Gazipur, according to the project’s website.

The BRT corridor from the airport to Gazipur will have one BRT lane in each direction located in the middle of the road and only for the use of BRT buses.

But a long delay in the project increased the cost of the construction.

Six flyovers are under construction along the corridor for “better traffic flow”.

Six elevated sections, including 4.5 km BRT lanes from House Building to the Cherag Ali point, are being constructed.

‘MECHANICAL FAULT’

BRT project officials suggest mechanical issues in the crane caused it to lean over. It is a Kobelco-7080 and can carry up to 80 tonnes.

Authorities brought over another crane from the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to pick up the girder and the leaning machine.

The government has formed a committee to investigate the incident. It was not clear how the mishap occurred as the crane operator fled the scene.

AKM Manir Hossain Pathan, a director at Dhaka Bus Rapid Transit Company Limited and chief engineer of the Roads and Highways Department, said traffic is allowed on only one lane of the road during girder-lifting operation. But the car entered one of the blocked lanes.

“I think [the crane] lost balance and slipped to the other side and [dropped the girder on the car].”

Asked whether the girder was too heavy for the crane, BRT Company Limited Managing Director Md Shafiqul Islam said the girder weighs around 80 tonnes and the crane has the capacity to lift such girders: “This crane had lifted girders before. So it is capable of pulling the weight. It might’ve leaned over due to some mechanical faults. Cranes run on chains, which might slip.”

ABM Amin Ullah Nuri, road transport and highways secretary, visited the scene in the evening. He said a three-member committee was formed to check whether safety measures were taken during the girder-lifting operation.

The committee will also see if the crane had the capacity to lift the girder. Nilima Akhter, an additional secretary at the Road Transport and Highways Division, is heading the investigation.

The project’s MD Shafiqul claimed the accident occurred outside the safety signs set by the authorities. “It’ll be known whether the crane operator was responsible for the incident after investigation.”