At least 24 people were killed and 20 others injured when a minibus collided head-on with a container truck on National Highway-715 near Kaziranga National Park in Assam. Many of the dead and injured were college students returning from classes, officials said. Several of the injured are in critical condition.
The crash took place at Rangajan, near the Hathikuli Tea Estate under the Kohora range of the national park. The minibus was travelling from Golaghat towards Nagaon, while the truck was heading towards Upper Assam. Police say the minibus lost control while travelling at high speed before colliding with the truck. The victims include two women and a minor. Eight of the dead have so far been identified, among them the minibus driver and a handyman. The identification of the remaining victims is expected to follow once the postmortem examinations are completed.
Rescue teams moved the injured to hospitals in Kohora, Bokakhat, Golaghat and Jorhat. Nine ambulances were engaged in ferrying the injured, and 20 patients were referred to hospitals in Jorhat, where the most serious cases were sent for further treatment. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the affected areas to review the situation, while Minister Atul Bora oversaw relief operations at the site. Postmortem examinations have been scheduled at the Golaghat civil hospital the following day, and families of the dead are expected to gather there to claim the bodies.
Records relating to the minibus have drawn attention during the investigation. The vehicle is registered to an owner in Nagaon. It had been fined in March for overspeeding at 102 kmph in Jorhat, and it has also received several overspeeding fines in Kaziranga, some of which remain unpaid. Officials have not yet said whether these records bear any direct link to Sunday's crash, and the enforcement history of the vehicle forms part of the wider inquiry.
The exact number of passengers aboard the minibus is still unknown, and it is not yet clear whether the vehicle was carrying more people than its seating capacity. Causes of the collision and any violations of traffic norms are under inquiry. The crash has once again raised concerns about road safety on the stretch of highway that runs close to the national park, where vehicles travel through areas frequented by wildlife, and where the speed of traffic has repeatedly been a matter of enforcement.
The tragedy has been felt most sharply among the families of the college students who were returning from classes when the minibus left the road's expected course. The loss of so many young people in a single collision has made the accident one of the deadliest road incidents reported in the region in recent times, and the response from the state government has centred on hospital care, the recovery of the dead and the investigation into how the crash occurred.
Source: orissapost.com
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