Three persons died and three others sustained serious injuries when a speeding truck hit a stationary bus on the East-West Highway in Sarlahi on Saturday morning.

The truck with the registration number Na 5 Kha 7129 hit the Illam-bound night bus (Na 4 Kha 9754) that was parked on the road side at Banke forest in Ishworpur Municipality. The bus had broken down and its staffers were repairing the vehicle at around 2am when the accident took place.   

According to the District Traffic Police Office in Sarlahi, 27-year-old Govinda Sauden of Sulbung-7 in Illam, 30-year-old Bineta Rai of Itahari-16 in Sunsari and 35-year-old Rahim Miya of Birgunj-19 in Parsa died in the accident. Sauden and Rai, passengers of the bus, were crushed to death as they were standing behind the vehicle. The bodies were taken to Sarlahi District Hospital in Malangawa for postmortem.

According to preliminary investigation, police suspect that Rahim Miya, one of the deceased, was the truck driver but his assistant was driving the vehicle when the accident took place.

“Investigation into the incident is underway,” said Traffic Police Inspector Raj Kumar Shahi.

Bus driver Rajendra Khatiwada from Jhapa and passengers Dawa Tamang from Nuwakot and Dipak Adhikari from Udayapur were seriously injured in theincident.

24 injured as bus overturns

Twenty-four people were injured, three critically, when a passenger bus overturned in Tulsipur, Dang, on Saturday. The bus (Ra 1 Kha 494), en route to Damar from Tulsipur, met with an accident, said police.

Three seriously injured passengers were referred to Nepalgunj while others received treatment at Rapti Zonal Hospital.