The mother of a groom, who was returning home with his newly wedded wife, died after the car they were returning by crashed into a tree along the road in Assam's Dhubri on Thursday night. Several others, including the bride, were critically injured in the incident.
The accident occurred at the Chapar intersection on National Highway 17. The groom, Mamud Ali, was returning to Dhubri From Guwahati with his wife Manjuwara Begum by the car after the wedding.
A police patrol team soon reached the spot and shifted the injured to a nearby hospital where doctors declared the Ali's mother Nafisa Sultana dead. The police have launched an investigation into the cause of the accident. "The car was in a breakneck speed and dashed against a roadside tree while negotiating a sharp turn," the investigating officer in the case said.
“We were returning to Dhubri with the bride and groom when the car they were travelling by crashed into a tree in the Nathpara area and turned turtle. While Nafisa died on the spot, four others, including the bride and groom, were seriously injured. I was just behind the ill-fated sedan," said a relative of the groom.
The doctors attending to the injured referred them to the Bongaigaon Medical College and Hospital for better treatment.
Among the injured were the bride's siblings Mosfiq Ali Bhuiyan and Mormi Begum. The groom works at a chemist shop as a pharmacist in Kokrajhar district, the bride works in a private bank, and the bride's sister is a degree final-year student.
At least 8,250 cases of road accidents were registered in Assam in 2019, 6,593 in 2020 and 4,328 till July 31, 2021. On the other hand, as many as 3,207 people died in road accidents in the state in 2019, 2,629 in 2020, and 1,789 till July 31, 2021.
Speeding was the major cause of road accidents and it accounted for 54.70 per cent of total road accidents in 2018 and 84.4% in 2019. Of the 2,629 deaths in 2020, 48% occurred on the national highways of the state, compelling the Assam government to impose speed limits on the highways.