Bus plunges into roadside ditch in Bangladesh, 19 killed

Police say up to 25 people were injured after a bus drove through a highway fence and ended up in a roadside ditch.

In Bangladesh, at least 19 people were killed and 25 injured after a bus drove through a fence on a highway and ended up in a roadside ditch in Bangladesh.

Police said they suspected the driver lost control at 8 a.m. (02:00 GMT) on Sunday and hit the railing of a recently constructed major highway, sending the bus, carrying more than 40 passengers, nine meters into the ditch fell. .

“The death toll has risen to 19. At least 12 people were seriously injured. They have been sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in the capital,” local police chief Masud Alam told AFP news agency after the crash in southern Shibchar district.

The death toll could rise even further as some of the injured passengers are in critical condition, said Anowar Hossain, a police official from Shibchar, where the crash took place.

The city is located 80 km (50 mi) from the capital Dhaka.

Road accidents are common in Bangladesh due to old and poorly maintained vehicles and roads as well as poorly trained drivers. Fatal road accidents are on the rise, despite the government saying they will reduce by 50 percent by 2030.

In July last year, nearly 400 people were killed and nearly double that number injured in more than 300 road accidents in the two weeks surrounding Bangladesh’s Eid al-Adha holiday.

A record 9,951 people were killed in road accidents in Bangladesh last year, according to the Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Organisation.