Assam accident: Autopsy of 26 bodies on Saturday

The condition of seven of the 18 injured people remained critical.

Guwahati: The postmortem of the bodies of 26 people who died in a collision between a minibus and a container truck in Assam’s Kaziranga will be conducted on Saturday, November 14, minister Ranoj Pegu said.

The condition of seven of the 18 injured people remained critical, said Pegu, who was deputed by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to visit the accident site and the hospitals where the injured are receiving treatment.

Sarma is scheduled to visit the families of the deceased and the injured under treatment in hospitals in Golaghat district on Saturday and take stock of the situation.

Twenty-six people died in a head-on collision between the two vehicles at Rangajan on National Highway 715 near Kaziranga National Park on Friday. Many of the victims were college students who were returning from their classes.

“The postmortem will be conducted at Swahid Kushal Konwar Civil Hospital in Golaghat, after which ambulances will take the bodies to their residence,” Pegu told reporters.

Pegu said 20 people had been admitted to hospitals in Jorhat and Golaghat and two of them had succumbed.

“Seven of the 18 injured are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Jorhat Medical College Hospital, and their condition remains critical,” he said.

The 11 others admitted at the two hospitals are stable, the minister said, adding that the state government will bear all costs for the injured‘s treatment.

Pegu said that the state government will make necessary arrangements if any of the injured need to be shifted to specialised hospitals for advanced treatment.

Doctors from Gauhati Medical College Hospital and Assam Medical College Hospital, Dibrugarh have reached Jorhat and Golghat to assist in treating the injured and conducting the postmortem.

He said investigations are underway to ascertain the cause of the accident and strict action will be taken against those who had flouted speeding norms, if found guilty.

The Golaghat district authorities on Friday said a thorough inquiry would be conducted to determine how the accident occurred and whether either or both of the vehicles violated traffic norms, such as carrying more passengers than their seating capacity allowed and exceeding the speed limit near Kaziranga National Park.

Speed restrictions are enforced along the entire stretch of the 60 km highway, with a maximum limit of 20 km/hour along the identified animal corridors, with speed-monitoring cameras installed at regular intervals along the stretch.

A forensic team from Guwahati has also reached the accident site to collect evidence.

Meanwhile, an infant, whose guardians are yet to be traced, was in the care of doctors at the Golaghat hospital. Three sisters of another family were among the 26 dead.

The minibus was going from Golaghat to Nagaon, while the container truck was going from Tezpur to Dibrugarh.

The driver of the truck, who received minor injuries, claimed the minibus switched lanes, swerving towards his side and hitting the vehicle at a very high speed. Both the driver and the handyman of the minibus died on the spot.