DHAKA: At least 14 people were killed and 12 others injured from a head-on collision between a truck and a pickup van in Bangladesh’s Sylhet district on Wednesday, a senior police official said, reported Xinhua.
Md Abul Hossain, inspector at Sylhet’s Dakshin Surma Police Station, told Xinhua that “at least 14 people were killed and 12 sustained injuries in the head-on collision”, and all of the deceased were construction workers.
Some workers were critically injured in the road accident that occurred at around 6:00 am local time in the district, some 240 km northeast of the capital Dhaka, said the official.
All the injured were rushed to local hospitals and clinics, he said, adding that the cause of the accident was under investigation.
Bangladesh has one of the highest fatality rates for road accidents in the world mainly due to shoddy highways, poorly maintained vehicles, violation of traffic rules by drivers, and a lack of monitoring by the Traffic Department.
As many as 328 people were killed and 565 injured in 304 road accidents from April 15 to April 29 during the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival rush in Bangladesh, said a report published here last month. - Bernama