Speeding bus loses control, killing 11 in Bangladesh

At least 11 people were killed as a speeding passenger bus went out of control and collided with the persons standing roadside before plunging into a ditch in Bangladesh's southern Barishal district on Friday night, the district's police chief said.
"We've come to know that 11 persons died while 15-20 others injured as the bus ran over several pedestrians before plunging into a ditch after the driver lost control," AKM Ehsan Ullah, police superintendent of Barishal district, some 180 km away from capital Dhaka, told Xinhua.
"Five people including several pedestrians died on the spot," he said, adding, "All the injured were rushed to nearby hospitals where six people succumbed to their injuries."
Quoting doctors treating the injured, Ullah said that several of them still remained in critical condition.
The accident occurred at about 7:00 p.m. local time (1:00 p.m. GMT).
Most likely the driver lost control on the slippery road due to raining, he said.
Bangladesh has one of the highest fatality rates for road accidents in the world due mainly to shoddy highways, poorly maintained vehicles, violation of traffic rules by inept drivers and lack of monitoring of the traffic department.
According to A latest study of the Accident Research Institute of the Bangladesh University of Engineering Technology, some 2,000 to 3,000 people are killed in road accidents in the country every year, with about 75 percent fatalities occurring in rural areas.