GOLAGHAT, India (The Thursday Times) — At least 24 people were killed when a minibus crowded with passengers collided head-on with a container truck on a highway near Kaziranga National Park in India’s north-eastern state of Assam on Friday, officials said.
The crash happened on National Highway 715 near Rongajan, in the Kohora range of Golaghat district, about 225 kilometres east of the state capital, Dispur. Several children and the minibus driver were among the dead. About 30 people were on board, according to one account.
“It is likely the death toll will increase,” said Swapnaneel Deka, the superintendent of police in Golaghat. Some reports put the toll at 26, and accounts of the number of injured ranged from 11 to about 20.
The injured were taken first to the Kohora Model Hospital, and those in critical condition were moved to the Jorhat Medical College and Hospital.
Speed under scrutiny
Preliminary police findings suggest the minibus was travelling at high speed and may have broken the speed limits that apply where the highway runs along the park, home to most of the world’s one-horned rhinoceroses. Deka said investigators suspected the driver had “lost control of the vehicle” before the collision.
A Golaghat district official said an inquiry would establish whether either vehicle broke traffic rules, including by carrying more passengers than it had seats for.
Assam’s chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said he was “deeply distressed by the tragic accident.” “The scale of this loss has shaken all of us, and my heart goes out to every family that has lost a loved one,” he said, adding that the injured would get the “best possible medical care.”
Atul Bora, the state’s panchayat and rural development minister and the local legislator, went to the site and helped move the injured to hospital.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief and announced Rs2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for the family of each person killed, and Rs50,000 for each of the injured.
Road crashes are common in India, where poorly maintained roads and vehicles and weak enforcement of traffic rules are often blamed for the high death toll on its highways.
