Back-to-back road accidents during the Eid travel rush triggered severe congestion on the Dhaka-Mawa Expressway, leaving homebound passengers from 21 southwestern districts stranded for hours on Monday.
The accidents occurred at two separate points on the highway between late Sunday night and Monday morning.
According to highway police and fire service sources, two trucks collided head-on in the Dogachi area of Sreenagar on the expressway around 2am on Monday, killing one truck driver.
Dewan Azad Hossain, station officer of Sreenagar Fire Service and Civil Defence, said another accident took place early Monday in the Samashpur area while authorities were still working to remove the damaged trucks.
A bus and a private car collided in the second crash, leaving three people injured.
The consecutive accidents severely disrupted traffic movement on the highway, causing a tailback stretching nearly two kilometres beyond the Mawa-end toll plaza of the Padma Bridge.
Mawa Highway Police Traffic Inspector Ziaul Haider said the situation gradually returned to normal after the damaged vehicles were cleared from the road around 8:30am.
Highway police and bridge authorities remain on alert to manage both the aftermath of the accidents and the heavy pressure of Eid travellers, he added.
To ensure faster crossings over the Padma Bridge, tolls are being collected uninterruptedly at eight booths on the Mawa end. Authorities have also kept two dedicated lanes open to handle the additional motorcycle traffic and ease movement.