6 killed, 1 injured as truck hits 3-wheeler in Rajshahi

At least six people including two children and three women of a family were killed, and one injured as a truck rammed into a battery-run rickshaw-van in Puthia upazila of Rajshahi this afternoon.

A sand-laden Taherpur-bound truck rammed into the oncoming three-wheeler and left its driver, two children and three women dead on the spot and one other injured, the UNO told our Rajshahi correspondent.

The accident took place in Tebaria area on the Puthia-Taherpur road around 5:20pm while the victims were returning home after attending a marriage ceremony, said M Nuruzzaman, upazila nirbahi officer at Puthia.

The deceased were identified as rickshaw-van puller Bidyut, 36, his wife Bristi, 32, his brother’s wife Sumi, 28, her son Rudro, 6 and daughter Puja, 10,  hailing from Dashmaria village of Puthia and Bichitra, 50, of Nondigram in Bogra.

The bodies of the victims were sent to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy.

The other relative was injured and rushed to RMCH while two others escaped narrowly, said the UNO.

The van, carrying nine passengers, all close relatives was returning home to Dashmaria village in Puthia, from a marriage ceremony at Taherpur of Bagmara upazila, said the UNO.

Local people stopped the killer truck 100 yards off the scene of accident and torched the truck.

The mob caught the driver Joban Ali, 40, of Charghat upazila and roughed him up.

However, the fire fighters of Puthia Fire Service and Civil Deference Station doused the fire leaving the truck to burn around 30 percent, said Shahriar Khan, officer-in-charge of Puthia Police Station.

Later the police rescued and arrested the truck-driver in this connection.

The OC blamed the truck driver for his negligence and said there was no visible reason for the accident on the 20-feet wide road.

The district administration immediately announced Tk 10,000 compensations for the dead and Tk 5000 for the injured.