Staff Reporter :
Police arrested the truck driver and his helper in connection with the road accident in the Gabkhan Toll Plaza area that claimed the lives of 14 people on Wednesday.
The arrestees have been identified as Al Amin, 30, a truck driver and son of Ansar Ali Hawladar of Baroigati village, and Nazmul Sheikh, 27, the son of Kalu Sheikh of the upazila.
They were detained from a house at Basonda in Sadar upazila of Jhalakathi district, said police.
Shahidul Islam, officer-in-charge of Sadar Police Station, said both the driver and his helper were hiding at a house, and the local people kept them confined there when they sought help from them.
Earlier on Wednesday, fourteen people were killed and 25 others injured when a speeding cement-laden truck sloughed through five vehicles before plunging into a roadside ditch near Gabkhan Bridge in the Jhalakathi municipality area.
The deceased were identified as Nahida Akter Sonia, 27, Hasibur Rahman, 32, Takia, 4, Tahmid, 8, Nipa, 22, Imran Hossain, 26, Ibrahim, 35, Shafiqul Majhi, 50, Atiqur Rahman Sadi, 11, Nurjahan, 7, Tahmia, 25, Sania Begum, 30, Ruhul Amin, 23, and Shahidul Islam.
Meanwhile, the government will provide Tk 5 lakh as financial assistance to the family members of those who died in a road accident in Jhalakathi and Tk 3 lakh to disabled victims.
Besides, each of the injured people will be given Tk 1 lakh. Jhalakathi Deputy Commissioner Farah Gul Nijhum confirmed the matter to the media on Wednesday afternoon.
It is to be noted that at least 50 people, including 15 in Jhalakathi and 14 in Faridpur, were killed and many others injured in several tragic road crashes across the country in the last three days.
