At least 24 people were killed and 20 others were injured when a minibus collided head-on with a container truck near Kaziranga National Park in Assam on Friday, officials said. The Assam bus crash took place in the afternoon at Rangajan, near the Hathikuli Tea Estate in the Kohora range, on National Highway 715. Many of the dead were college students returning from their classes. The toll rose through the day as rescue workers pulled bodies from the wreckage and hospitals confirmed deaths, after early reports had put the number at seven.
The minibus, a Traveller, was travelling from Golaghat towards Nagaon, police said. It was carrying passengers from the Bokakhat area. The container truck was travelling in the opposite direction, towards Upper Assam. The two vehicles met head-on on the highway that runs past the national park, and the Assam bus crash left the front of the minibus crushed into a mangled heap of metal while the container truck skidded off the road to the side.
Eight of the dead in the Assam bus crash had been identified by Friday evening. They included Jyoti Majhi, Darpana Majhi, 12-year-old Anurag Goala, the minibus driver Abdul Mujid, handyman Subhash, Rashid Ali, Hafiza Khatun and Farhana Yasmin. Two women and a minor were among the dead, officials said. The exact number of people travelling in the minibus was not immediately known, Golaghat Senior Superintendent of Police Swapnaneel Deka told PTI.
Assam bus crash victims and rescue work
Rescue work after the Assam bus crash continued into the evening. The injured were first taken to Kohora Model Hospital. Most of the critically injured were then referred to civil hospitals in Bokakhat and Golaghat, and to Jorhat Medical College and Hospital. Nine ambulances ferried the injured from the site, an executive magistrate of Golaghat district said, adding that doctors had referred 20 people to Jorhat for advanced treatment. Several of the injured were in a critical condition, and officials warned the death toll could rise further.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said he was deeply distressed by the accident. “A very tragic accident took place near Kaziranga National Park in the afternoon. According to information received so far, 24 people have lost their lives. College students are among the dead,” Sarma said during an official programme at Biswanath, where he spoke about the Assam bus crash. He said the priority was medical care for the injured, and that minister Ranoj Pegu would visit Kaziranga while he would go the next day. Postmortems will take place at Swahid Kushal Konwar Civil Hospital in Golaghat during the daytime, on the Chief Minister’s instructions, after earlier reports had said they could take place at night.
Speed suspected in Assam bus crash
Police said the minibus was travelling at very high speed, in violation of restrictions imposed near the park, and that its driver appeared to have lost control before the collision. State minister Atul Bora, who is also the local MLA, said witnesses had reported that the bus was speeding before the crash. Bora, the Panchayat and Rural Development Minister, was at the site overseeing relief work, and he described the Assam bus crash as one of the worst in Assam’s history.
The minibus was a habitual offender, an official of the Golaghat District Transport Office said. It was registered in the name of Anjir Ali of Nagaon, and it had been fined Rs 4,000 in Jorhat on 3 March for driving at 102 kmph. It had also received multiple overspeeding fines in Kaziranga, and several fines were still pending, the official said.
The Golaghat district administration will institute a thorough enquiry into how the Assam bus crash took place and whether either vehicle violated traffic norms, including rules on passenger capacity and speed limits near Kaziranga National Park, an official said. Kaziranga, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its one-horned rhinos, lies about 225 kilometres east of Dispur, the state capital. The crash took place on a stretch of highway where speed is restricted because of the nearby wildlife habitat.