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Bangladesh Eid travel rush turns deadly as dozens killed in crashes across 14 districts
Accidents over the past few days involved buses, trucks, trains, pickups, autorickshaws and motorcycles. Bangladeshi authorities have identified 25 deadly spots on Dhaka-Ghazipur highway
- PUBLISHED: Tue 26 May 2026, 4:13 PM UPDATED: Tue 26 May 2026, 4:26 PM
At least 40 people have been killed and nearly 70 injured in road accidents in 14 districts across Bangladesh since Thursday as hundreds of thousands of people headed to their homes to celebrate Eid. They include 15 people who were killed and many others injured after a truck carrying iron rods overturned on a bridge in Tangail district on Monday.
Muhammad Shamsul Alan Sarkar, a Tangail police officer, told the media that people were seated on the rods and were headed to their homes in the northern districts to celebrate Eid. The police suspect the accident happened at 4.30am Monday after the driver fell asleep. Most of the victims were hawkers and labourers who were eager to join their families in their hometowns for Eid.
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In another accident reported by the media, a dozen people were killed and 18 injured after a mail train on the Chattogram-Dhaka route hit a bus at a level crossing on Sunday around 3am. Eyewitnesses told the media that the train dragged the bus for nearly a km.
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The accidents over the past few days involved buses, trucks, trains, pickups, autorickshaws and motorcycles.
Authorities in Bangladesh have identified 25 spots on the Dhaka-Ghazipur highway, which see a lot of accidents, especially when hundreds of thousands of people head to their homes from the capital.
Officials told reporters that stretches such as Cumilla on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway are prone to massive bottlenecks because of heavy traffic, illegal structures, and indiscriminate halting of vehicles to pick up and drop people.
Several highways connecting Dhaka to Chattogram, Sylhet, Mymensingh and northern Bangladesh were also choked up with vehicles following heavy rains from Monday.
Some garment workers also blocked the road on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway on Tuesday, demanding unpaid wages and bonus, paralysing traffic for several kilometres, according to reporters at the site. There were complaints about travel from the capital to Chandra, about 50 km away, taking nearly five hours.
