An eyewitness said buses, human drivers and auto-rickshaws started crossing the tracks soon after the barrier was removed. Within seconds, the detached wagons hit the vehicles hard, dragging them across the railway line. “It all happened in less than a minute,” the witness said. “If the barrier had been raised a minute later, perhaps the accident could have been avoided.”
Another eyewitness, Momin, said that the gatekeeper might not have realized that several different wagons were still moving towards the crossing.
Rajbari Railway senior sub-assistant engineer Mehboob Hasan said the detached wagons were taken to Faridpur’s Amirabad railway station around 12:30 am on July 28.