At least 26 people, including schoolchildren, died and 20 were critically injured when an overcrowded passenger Traveller collided with a container truck near Kaziranga National Park in Assam’s Golaghat district. Police suspect overspeeding and overcrowding. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced ₹2 lakh compensation for deceased victims’ families and ₹50,000 for injured passengers.
At least 26 people, including schoolchildren and the vehicle crew, were killed and 20 others critically injured on Friday in a devastating head-on collision between a passenger Force Traveller and a container truck near Kaziranga National Park in Assam’s Golaghat district on Friday noon.
The accident occurred at Rongajan, near Hathikuli Tea Estate in the Kohora range along National Highway 715.
According to officials, the Nagaon-bound Force Traveller (bearing registration number AS 02AC 6690), travelling from Bokakhat, collided head-on with a Tezpur to Dibrugarh bound container truck (KA 01AT 0977).
Overcrowding and Overspeeding Suspected:
Preliminary police investigations and eyewitness accounts indicate that the collision occurred at high speed, leaving the Traveller severely mangled with several passengers trapped inside and others thrown out by the sheer force of the impact. Police noted that the passenger vehicle was dangerously overcrowded—carrying around 41 passengers, including students from Kaziranga High School, against its official capacity of 26—and had allegedly violated strict speed restrictions enforced near the national park corridor before the driver lost control. The driver Abdul Mujib and staff of the Traveller were among those who lost their lives.