At least 26 people have died after a passenger minibus collided head-on with a container lorry near Kaziranga National Park in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam.
The collision happened on Friday 13 November at Rangajan, in Golaghat district, on National Highway 715. Women, children and college students were among those killed. Several other people were injured and taken to hospitals in the area.
The minibus was travelling towards Nagaon when it collided with the lorry near the park. The crash happened at about 1pm local time, close to the Hathikuli Tea Estate in the Kohora range.
Police officers and local residents helped to rescue passengers who were trapped inside the damaged minibus. Ambulances took casualties to hospital, with some people receiving initial treatment at Kohora Model Hospital before being referred elsewhere.
Hospitals receive the injured
People hurt in the collision were taken to facilities including Bokakhat Civil Hospital, Golaghat Civil Hospital and Jorhat Medical College and Hospital. Some were reported to have serious injuries.
Two people who had been referred to the hospital in Jorhat later died. The death toll reached 26 as officials gathered information from the hospitals involved. Earlier reports had given different figures for the number of people killed and injured.
The work of identifying those who died continued after the crash. By Saturday, 25 bodies had been accounted for and 23 of them identified; two remained unidentified. The district administration also arranged vehicles to take the deceased to their homes.
The number of people aboard the minibus has not been firmly established. Early estimates varied considerably, and a district inquiry is expected to examine whether passenger-capacity rules were followed.
Relief and financial assistance
Assam minister Atul Bora went to the site and supervised relief work. He also visited hospitals to check on injured people and the care being provided. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the immediate priority was to ensure the injured received medical treatment without delay.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced assistance from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. The next of kin of each person killed are to receive 200,000 rupees, while each injured person is to receive 50,000 rupees.
Sarma also expressed condolences to the families of those killed and said he planned to visit the area. The state government said it was working to support affected families and care for the injured.
Cause under investigation
The circumstances of the collision remain under investigation. Police have raised speeding as a possible factor, but that suspicion is not a final finding. The district inquiry is also expected to consider whether either vehicle breached traffic rules, including restrictions on speed near the park.
The highway runs beside Kaziranga National Park, a protected area known for its one-horned rhinoceroses. Speed limits apply near animal corridors along the road, where wildlife can move between habitats.
Measures intended to reduce the risk to animals near the park include speed-reducing features around wildlife crossings and work to build structures to help animals pass safely across highways. Those measures address a wider conservation and road-safety concern; they do not establish what caused the collision on Friday.
