A helper filling in for the driver of a cement-laden truck lost control and flipped the vehicle in Pirganj of Rangpur early yesterday, leaving 16 Eid holidaymakers, including two women and a girl, dead.

The victims were travelling on the truck and it appears that they died after cement sacks fell on them, said Rezaul Karim, officer-in-charge of Pirganj Police Station. Eight others were also injured.

The tragic accident took place around 5.45am on the Dhaka-Rangpur highway near Kalabagan village just two days before the festival.

Most of the deceased were garment workers. They were heading for their homes in Kaliganj and Aditmari upazilas of Lalmonirhat from Gazipur, said the OC.

The dead were identified as Rabiul Islam, 40, Azizul Islam, 35, Suporna Begum, 10, Kohinur Begum, 30, Jhantu Mia, 35, Moznu Mia 29, Nasida Akter, 40, Alamgir Hossain 27, Delwar Hossain 25, Jashim Uddin 26, Anisuzzaman, 35, Shahiduzzaman 30, Saddam Hossain 24, Munir Hossain 24, RafiqulIslam, 24, and Khalil Mia 32.

The injured were being treated at Rangpur Medical College Hospital (RMCH), said its director Moudud Ahmed.

Failing to get seats in already overcrowded buses and trains during every Eid rush, many holidaymakers, especially those from the low income group, travel on trucks, although there is a government ban on the movement of the vehicle on high ways for three days before and after the festival.

According to a government-supervised survey, on average, 64 people die every day from injuries suffered in traffic accidents in Bangladesh.

Sometimes, the number of the accidents increases during the Eid journeys when a huge number of people and unfit vehicles hit the highways.

On February 3 this year, a truck driven by a driver's helper lost control and ploughed through a crowd gathered to attend a funeral of a Buddhist monk in Rangamati, killing eight people.

YESTERDAY'S ACCIDENT

Khadiza Begum, a survivor of yesterday's accident, said some 40 people, including her husband Alamgir Hossain and brother Delwar Hossain, seven to nine other women, and a child, boarded the truck in Gazipur on Friday evening.

“We got onto the truck as we failed to get bus tickets,” she told this correspondent over phone lying on a bed at the RMCH.

The vehicle was already loaded with cement sacks and each of the Eid holidaymakers paid the driver and the helper Tk 400 for their trip to Lalmonirhat.

Minutes before the accident, the helper, in his early 20s, took the wheel and the driver went to the next seat to have a nap, said the woman, who was yet to be told that her husband and brother were already dead.

Alamgir's cousins Saddam and Munir Hossain were also among the deceased.

All of a sudden, the truck overturned, leaving us baffled, she said.

The driver and the helper fled.

Witness Razu Mia, who runs a roadside shop, said the truck flipped and those on it were buried under the cement sacks. Many, however, jumped and escaped unhurt, he said.

Locals, fire fighters and law enforcers rushed to the spot and found 11 people dead on the spot. Thirteen injured were taken to Pirganj Upazila Health Complex where five died, said police.

Later, the health complex authorities referred the injured to the RMCH.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Wahiduzzaman, deputy commissioner of Rangpur, formed a three member committee headed by Abdul Kuddus, assistant director of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority in the district, to investigate the incident.

Visiting the spot, the DC announced that each of the family of the deceased would be given Tk 20,000.

Rangpur police also formed a 3-member committee led by Additional SP Shahidul Islam to probe the matter.

Contacted, Rezaul Karim, OC of Pirganj Police Station, said they were trying to arrest the driver and his helper.