GOLAGHAT (The Thursday Times) — The minibus in Friday’s crash near Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, which has now killed 26 people, had its mandatory speed-limiting device removed so that it could make more trips, police said on Saturday, as officials searched for the family of a two-year-old boy who survived.
Swapnaneel Deka, the Senior Superintendent of Police in Golaghat district, said every commercial vehicle in Assam must carry a speed limiter. “Our investigation revealed that the device was removed intentionally by the driver and the owner so that they can make more trips for financial gains,” he said.
The minibus collided head-on with a container truck at Rangajan on National Highway 715 at about 2.30pm on Friday. Police said a preliminary investigation found that the minibus was speeding. Its driver was among those killed. Many of the dead were college students returning home from classes, officials said.
The toll rose from 24 to 26 on Saturday as two injured passengers died. Officials said 15 to 17 people were still being treated at Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, several of them in a critical condition. Two of the dead had not yet been identified.
A boy nobody has claimed
Among the survivors is a boy of about two whose parents have not been identified. Sujata Gogoi, the co-district commissioner of Bokakhat, said some people believed he had been travelling with his mother, but officials had not been able to trace his family. No one had come forward to claim him by Saturday.
Officials said the child was stable and would be handed to child welfare authorities if the search for his family failed.
Chief minister points to a medical emergency
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the crash site on Saturday. Referring to dashcam footage of the collision that has spread online, he said the driver may have had a heart attack or a stroke moments before the minibus swerved into the truck. He said Education Minister Ranoj Pegu, who is a doctor, had told him the footage suggested this at first sight, and that specialist doctors would carry out the driver’s post-mortem examination to check.
“A detailed investigation is underway, and we will look at every possible cause behind this tragedy,” Sarma said.
Sarma also said some traffic restrictions had been relaxed at an earlier cabinet meeting in Nalbari because of political pressure. “Even then, I felt we should not have allowed such relaxations,” he said, promising that strict traffic rules would be brought back and enforced. Teams from the National Highways Authority of India are also examining the stretch, which runs along the edge of the national park.
The family of each victim will receive Rs9 lakh in compensation: Rs5 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, Rs2 lakh from the State Disaster Management Authority, and Rs2 lakh announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sarma said he would visit the home of every bereaved family over the next two to three days.
An electricity board worker who was among the first to reach the scene said he pulled nine bodies from the wreckage. He said rescuers broke the windows to get passengers out and used whatever transport they could find, including e-rickshaws, to take the injured to the nearby Kohora Model Hospital.
