The RP Special Transport bus that met with an accident in Natore was being driven by supervisor Sohel Rana. At the time, the driver and assistant were sleeping in the rear seats. A total of 14 people were killed in the accident, including Sohel Rana himself.
This information was confirmed by three passengers who survived the crash. The deceased Sohel Rana was a resident of Faradpur village in Godagari upazila, Rajshahi. Family members said that Sohel Rana had previously worked as a bus driver himself. He left the driver’s job about two years ago and took up the position of supervisor.
Bonpara Highway Police reported that around 4 a.m. on Tuesday (20 October), on the Natore-Pabna highway in Bonpara under Baraigram upazila of Natore, an RP Special Transport bus collided head-on with a sand-laden truck. Fourteen people were killed. At least 25 others were seriously injured and admitted to various hospitals.
Ramzan Ali (28), from Gomostapur upazila in Chapainawabganj, was a passenger on the bus. He survived the accident but was injured and first received treatment at Bonpara Patwari Hospital.
While being taken to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital for better care, he said, “I was sitting two seats behind the driver’s seat. Around 3 a.m., when the bus reached Ishwardi in Pabna, the driver got up from his seat. The supervisor then started driving. The driver closed the bus door, and he and his assistant went to sleep in the rear seats. About an hour later, the bus collided head-on with a sand-laden truck coming from the opposite direction.”
Two other passengers on the bus, Yaqub Ali and Abdus Salam, also received treatment at Bonpara Patwari Hospital after being injured. While under treatment, they stated that at the time of the accident the supervisor was driving the bus at a reckless speed. The driver and helper were in the rear seats. The bus left Barguna district town around 7 p.m. on Monday, stopped briefly in Ishwardi, Pabna, and after that stop the supervisor took over the driving. The accident occurred a short while later.
Meanwhile, Sohel Rana’s body reached Faradpur village on Tuesday afternoon. Relatives gathered around the body, their wailing filling the air. Villagers crowded to see the body.Sohel Rana’s wife, Dolly Begum, said her husband used to drive buses. About two years ago he began working as a bus supervisor.
Their household ran on his earnings. Having lost her earning husband, she now finds herself adrift with their children.
Regarding the issue of who was driving the accident-involved bus, Sub-Inspector Alamgir Hossain of Bonpara Highway Thana said a case will be filed and an investigation will be conducted. Nothing can be confirmed without investigation.
Road Accident Statistics (2025)
According to the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity (Passenger Welfare Association), 6,729 road accidents in 2025 caused 9,111 deaths and 14,812 injuries. This marked increases of roughly 7% in accidents, 6% in deaths, and 15% in injuries compared with 2024. Combined road, rail, and waterway accidents totaled about 7,369 incidents with 9,754 deaths.
The Road Safety Foundation reported around 7,360 road deaths in 2025, with motorcycles involved in roughly 36–40% of cases. Road crashes rose about 60% over five years, and the economic cost of accidents exceeded Tk 25,000–60,000 crore (over 1% of GDP in some estimates). Motorcycles, trucks/lorries, and buses feature heavily among involved vehicles. Pedestrians and head-on collisions account for large shares of fatalities.
Common Reasons for Road Accidents: Frequent factors
-Reckless speeding and dangerous overtaking, as reported by survivors in the Natore case.
-Driver fatigue and excessive working hours without proper rest (drivers and helpers sleeping while a non-driver operates the vehicle).
-Unskilled, unlicensed, or improperly trained drivers, often with fake or bribed licences.
-Unfit vehicles (expired or fraudulently obtained fitness certificates; the Natore bus reportedly lacked a valid one).
-Overloading, poor road conditions, inadequate signage, and mixing of slow-moving vehicles on highways.
-Weak enforcement of rules and low public awareness.Human error (reckless behaviour, fatigue, rule-breaking) is repeatedly cited as the dominant factor in reports and studies.
Authorities’ Negligence
The Road Transport Act 2018 was enacted after the 2018 student protests demanding safer roads, yet enforcement has been weak for years.
Key provisions were delayed or diluted under pressure from transport owners’ and workers’ associations with political connections. Rules took years to finalise, and systemic accountability remains limited.
The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has been ranked among the most corrupt public agencies in surveys by Transparency International Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Widespread bribery for licences, fitness certificates, and permits allows unfit vehicles and unqualified drivers onto the roads. Hundreds of thousands of vehicles operate without valid fitness certificates.
Recent ACC raids have targeted alleged bribery syndicates at BRTA offices. Highway and traffic police frequently fail to intercept reckless vehicles in real time, and post-accident investigations rarely produce lasting systemic reform.
Probir Kumar Sarker, founder of Write For Rights, said that cases like the Natore crash—where a supervisor drove recklessly while the licensed driver slept, and the bus reportedly lacked a current fitness certificate—illustrate the results of these failures. Stronger enforcement, reduced corruption at BRTA, proper rest rules for drivers, routine fitness and license checks, and reduced political interference in the transport sector are repeatedly recommended by road-safety groups, yet progress remains slow.