At least 24 people were killed and at least 11 injured on Friday when a crowded minibus collided head-on with a container truck on National Highway 715 near Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, police said. College students and children were among the dead, and officials warned the toll was likely to rise as critically injured passengers were treated in hospital.
Cover photo: a wetland in Kaziranga National Park, Assam, beside which National Highway 715 runs. Photo: Joli, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). File photo of the area, not the crash scene.
What happened
The crash happened at about 1 p.m. local time on Friday, November 13, at Rangajan in Golaghat district, near the Hathikuli Tea Estate bordering the Kohora range of Kaziranga National Park, about 230 km (140 miles) east of the state capital, Dispur, The Hindu reported.
A Force Traveller minibus carrying passengers from Bokakhat toward Nagaon collided head-on with a multi-axle container truck travelling in the opposite direction. Officials said 39 people, including the driver, were on board the minibus. The truck driver said he was travelling from Tezpur to Dibrugarh. "The Traveller directly hit our vehicle," he said. He and his companion escaped with minor injuries.
The dead included the bus driver and several children, Al Jazeera reported, citing officials. "Some of the passengers died on the spot. They included some college students," said Atul Bora, Assam's rural development minister and the local member of the state assembly, who was at the site. Officials said the exact number of students who died was being ascertained, and the names of all the dead had not been released.
The injured were taken to Jorhat Medical College and Hospital in the neighbouring district and to the Civil Hospital in Golaghat, the district headquarters. The Hindu reported 15 injured, some of them in critical condition. Swapnaneel Deka, superintendent of police of Golaghat district, told Reuters the death toll was likely to increase. Some Indian outlets, citing hospital officials, reported overnight that the toll had risen to 26, but the Associated Press and Reuters had not confirmed a higher figure.
What caused it
Police are investigating the cause, and officials suspected the minibus was speeding. A dashcam clip from the container truck heightened that suspicion, The Hindu reported. Speed limits are enforced near animal corridors along the 60-km stretch of the highway that runs alongside Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its one-horned rhinos.
State minister Atul Bora described the crash as one of the worst in Assam's history, the Associated Press reported. The minibus was carrying college students and families heading out for a weekend picnic, according to local reports. Post-mortem examinations of the dead were scheduled for Saturday.
The response
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on X that he was "deeply distressed by the tragic accident". "The scale of this loss has shaken all of us, and my heart goes out to every family that has lost a loved one. No words can ease their pain, but I want them to know that they are not alone. All of Assam stands with them in this hour of grief," Sarma said, according to Al Jazeera. He said local authorities were at the site and "personally overseeing the relief arrangements ... to make sure the injured receive the best possible medical care without delay", and that he would visit the place on Saturday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief at the loss of life and announced compensation. "An ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of each of those who lost their lives. The injured would be given ₹50,000," Modi said. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said he was "deeply saddened by the tragic road accident in Kaziranga, Assam, that took away precious lives" and wished the injured a speedy recovery.
A familiar toll
India has one of the highest rates of road fatalities in the world, with accidents happening regularly in part due to poorly maintained roads and vehicles, Al Jazeera noted. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways counted 177,175 road deaths in India in 2024 — about 485 a day.
What remains to be confirmed
The final death toll, the identities of all the victims, and the formal finding on the cause of the crash. Police are still establishing how many of the dead were students, and several of the injured remain in critical condition. The Wire Post will update this story as officials confirm the toll and the investigation's findings.
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UPDATE — November 14, 05:29 Bogotá time (10:29 UTC): The death toll has risen to 26, after three critically injured passengers died at Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, ABP Live reported. The 26 dead include 14 women and 12 men, among them a minor, and 20 people were injured, seven of them in critical condition, state minister Ranoj Pegu said, according to PTI. Post-mortem examinations of the 26 victims were scheduled for Saturday — 23 in Golaghat and three in Jorhat. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the crash site on Saturday morning and announced state assistance of ₹7 lakh (about US$7,900) for each bereaved family — ₹5 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund and ₹2 lakh from the Disaster Management Department, The Assam Tribune reported. Investigators are examining severe overcrowding and the driver’s health: Sarma said the traveller, permitted to carry 26 people, was carrying 41, and that possible intoxication, a stroke or another medical condition affecting the driver was under investigation, along with the vehicle’s 10 previous traffic challans. Preliminary video footage showed the road relatively clear when the traveller suddenly veered into the path of the truck, Sarma said.
UPDATE — November 14, 07:31 Bogotá time (12:31 UTC): Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the crash site on Saturday and said the driver of the traveller may have suffered a sudden health emergency — a stroke or a heart attack — that made him lose control of the vehicle, also raising diabetes and a sudden drop in blood sugar as another possibility; the driver’s body will undergo a full post-mortem, and the cause remains under investigation, NDTV reported. Sarma also said preliminary video showed the traveller moving at more than 120 km/h on a stretch of the Kaziranga corridor where the limit is 40 km/h, Pratidin Time reported. Post-mortem examinations of the 26 victims were under way on Saturday, with 10 completed by early afternoon and 24 of the 26 identified, while two remained unidentified, Prothom Alo reported. A two-year-old boy survived the crash and, as of Saturday morning, no one had come forward to claim him, The Indian Express reported.
UPDATE — November 14, 09:33 Bogotá time (14:33 UTC): Post-mortem examinations of all 26 victims were completed on Saturday — 23 at Golaghat Civil Hospital and three at Jorhat Medical College — and the bodies were handed over to their families, The Sentinel Assam reported. The two-year-old boy who survived the crash is stable, with a forehead wound, after being kept under observation overnight at the hospital in Bokakhat; doctors have referred him to Golaghat District Hospital for a CT scan, and as of 10 a.m. on Saturday no one had come forward to claim him — if his parents are not found, he will be handed over to the Child Welfare Committee, The Indian Express reported. In its preliminary investigation, police said rash and negligent driving appears to have caused the crash, and suspect overspeeding and a violation of traffic restrictions near Kaziranga National Park, Hub Network reported. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited Kaziranga on Saturday to meet the injured, 20 of whom were being treated at Jorhat Medical College, with a team of doctors from Gauhati Medical College assisting.
UPDATE — November 14, 14:35 Bogotá time (19:35 UTC): Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday, after visiting the crash site at Rangajan, that the family of each of the 26 people killed will receive Rs 9 lakh as ex gratia — Rs 5 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, Rs 2 lakh from the State Disaster Management Authority and Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister. Ministers will hand the money to the families at their homes after the post-mortem examinations, and Sarma said he would personally visit every bereaved family in the next two to three days. “No amount of money can compensate such a loss, especially for families who have lost more than one member,” he said, PTI reported. All 26 dead have now been identified: 14 women and 12 men, including three sisters from the same family — Darpana, Jyoti and Lakhimi Majhi — Assam Police personnel Sushil Bhumij, the minibus driver and the handyman. Sarma said the prima facie reason for the crash appeared to be that the minibus driver had lost control of the steering wheel, possibly due to a cardiac arrest or a technical fault, and he ordered a special post-mortem examination of the driver, adding: “We will look at every possible cause behind this tragedy.” The 26-seater minibus was carrying more than 40 passengers despite holding a valid fitness certificate, and transport officials said it was a habitual offender with multiple speeding fines, including a Rs 4,000 fine in Jorhat on March 3 for driving at 102 kmph, the Tribune reported. Eighteen injured people remain in treatment, seven of them in intensive care at Jorhat Medical College and Hospital in critical condition; the state will bear all treatment costs, Education Minister Ranoj Pegu said. Sarma also admitted that some traffic restrictions had been relaxed across the state at the Nalbari cabinet meeting after the 2024 general election because of political pressure: “Even then, I felt we should not have allowed such relaxations.”
UPDATE — November 14, 20:33 Bogotá time (01:33 UTC): Police investigating the crash said the minibus's mandatory speed-limiting device had been removed deliberately so the driver and the vehicle's owner could make more trips for financial gain, Golaghat Senior Superintendent of Police Swapnaneel Deka told The Indian Express. The transport department, however, said its inspectors found a speed-limiting device installed in the vehicle and that a technical examination would determine whether it was working, Assam Transport Minister Charan Boro said, according to The Assam Tribune. Teams from the National Highways Authority of India are travelling from Delhi and Pune to examine the crash site, Boro said. The minister added that the minibus had previously been fined repeatedly for speeding, including an unpaid penalty for driving at 102 km/h in Jorhat. No official cause for the crash has been established; the driver's specialised post-mortem examination is still awaited.