Guwahati: At the crack of dawn, Abdul quietly slipped out of his house to avoid waking his ailing wife and young son. Little did he know that he was missing his last chance to say goodbye.Abdul Mazid, a driver nearing 60, followed the same routine for nearly four decades, leaving before dawn to ferry passengers between Nagaon and Golaghat. On Friday, however, he left without seeing his wife, Mumuna Begum, who has a heart condition.The next day, she saw him lying lifeless after one of Assam’s deadliest road accidents, which claimed 26 lives.For his family, the tragedy is compounded by disbelief. Mazid had spent nearly 45 years behind the wheel, including driving heavy buses, and was regarded as an experienced driver. His alleged move into the wrong lane and the collision with an oncoming vehicle near Kaziranga have left relatives struggling to reconcile the accident footage with the man they knew.“Driving was his livelihood for nearly 45 years, and he had considerable experience, including driving heavy buses. We never imagined that something like this could happen to him,” his son, Izaz Ahmed, said.Mazid would usually leave between 4 am and 5 am, reach the Nagaon bus stand and begin the nearly 160 km journey to Golaghat. But on Friday, his brother-in-law, Sidli Alam, said he did not even have his usual cup of tea.“Perhaps he did not want to disturb his wife, and he left without waking her,” Alam said.When Mazid’s body reached Nagaon after the autopsy, grief engulfed the household. His son, in his twenties, and married daughter, in her thirties, lost the person who held the family together.Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said the cause would be established only after a detailed investigation. Referring to the footage, he said it raised questions about whether Mazid suffered a sudden medical episode, such as a stroke, heart attack or drop in blood sugar.Relatives said Mazid had no known history of diabetes, hypertension or any illness that could have affected his driving. “He did not have any disease. We were not aware,” Izaz said.Viscera samples of Mazid and another staff member, Subhas Das, were sent for tests to determine whether they were intoxicated. A fellow driver, however, said he had never known Mazid to consume alcohol.Mazid had driven the passenger vehicle, owned by a neighbour, for nearly 10 years. He usually drove at 60–70 km/h and had no recent accident history, relatives said. Fellow drivers described him as moderate in speed and said he appeared cheerful and normal before the crash.
