Ambulance crash claims 2 lives in Malda

Malda: A fatal accident in Malda’s Pukhuria police station area claimed the lives of a woman and an unborn child after an ambulance carrying a pregnant patient collided with a speeding tractor at Kutubganj on Saturday morning. Six others were seriously injured.

According to local sources, the pregnant woman, Beauty Khatun, a resident of Vita Palashbona, was being shifted from Kumarganj Hospital to Malda Medical College and Hospital in an ambulance. Several family members were accompanying her.

While the vehicle was passing through Kutubganj, a recklessly driven tractor rammed into the ambulance, leaving all seven passengers injured. They were rushed to Malda Medical College and Hospital, where Rabia Bibi, a housewife travelling with the patient, succumbed to her injuries. Doctors later confirmed that Beauty Khatun’s unborn child also died due to the impact.

Beauty, who sustained multiple critical injuries, has been shifted to a private nursing home in Malda. Two other seriously injured passengers have been referred to Kolkata for advanced treatment, while the rest are undergoing treatment at Malda Medical College and Hospital.

Speaking to reporters, Johur Ali, a relative of the deceased, criticised the hospital authorities for “unnecessarily referring the patient without proper stabilisation”. They should have “treated her properly at Kumarganj... Because of their negligence, we have lost a life and an unborn child...,” he said.

Local police have seized the tractor and launched an investigation into the accident.