Nagarkanda mayor hurt, wife & son killed in accident

Nagarkanda municipality mayor Nimai Chandra Sarkar was seriously injured while his wife, son and a party colleague were killed in a road accident on the Dhaka-Khulna highway on Wednesday night, police said.

The Mayor was airlifted to a military hospital in Dhaka in the early hours of Thursday after his condition worsened at Faridpur Medical College and Hospital, where he was initially rushed to. Nine others were also injured in the crash.

The accident occurred on the highway at Kaler intersection in Nagarkanda upazila around 9.30 pm when a state-run passenger bus collided with a microbus carrying the 50-year-old mayor, his family and some party colleagues home from a programme.

OC Omar Faruk of Nagarkanda Police Station said Sanchita Sarkar, the 38-year-old wife of the mayor, their son Gourab Sarkar, 23, and Kamal Matubbar, 38, joint general secretary of Nagarkanda municipality unit Jubo League, died on the spot in the impact of the crash.

While the Mayor was taken to Faridpur Medical College and Hospital, the others were admitted to a local hospital.

"The Mayor was airlifted to Dhaka from Faridpur by an air ambulance of Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) around 1.10 am as his condition continued to be critical," said Md Shahidul Islam, inspector (operations) of Faridpur Kotwali Police Station.

He is being treated at Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka, the officer said.

The Mayor and his family met the tragedy on their way back home from a programme in Bhanga upazila.

"A probe has been ordered into the accident," the police officer said.

Road accidents in Bangladesh

Road accidents in Bangladesh continue to claim hundreds of lives every year.

At least 484 people were killed and 673 injured in 427 road accidents in January this year.

According to Road Safety Foundation (RSF) accident rates jumped by 25.58 percent and fatalities by 8.76 percent in January this year compared to the same period last year.

At least 445 lives were lost in 340 road accidents in January 2020, according to RSF.

In a report released in February 2020, the World Bank said that Bangladesh needed to invest an estimated extra $7.8 billion over the next decade to halve its road crash fatalities.

The report attributed the high death rate on Bangladesh’s roads to lack of investments in systemic, targeted, and sustained road safety programmes.