NN Online:
Motorbikes were the leading cause of road deaths in Bangladesh last January, accounting for 264 fatalities (43.42 per cent of the total 608 deaths) according to the latest estimate by the Road Safety Foundation.
The non-government organisation prepared the report based on information from nine national dailies, seven online news portals, and electronic media, according to a press release on Tuesday.
As many as 608 people died and 1,100 injured in 621 road accidents across the country in January this year, according to the report.
Among the other victims, 28 (4.6 per cent) died in accident involving bus, 34 (5.59 per cent) died in accident involving trucks, covered vans, pickups; 19 (3.12 per cent) in accident involving private cars, microbuses, ambulances, jeeps, 90 (14.80 per cent) in three-wheelers like CNG, easybikes, and auto-rickshaws accidents, 18 (2.96 per cent) locally-made vehicles nasiman-kariman accidents, and 12 (1.97 per cent) in bicycles-paddle rickshaws and rickshaw vans accidents.
According to the Foundation’s analysis, 214 (34.46 per cent) accidents occurred on national highways, 265 (42.67 per cent) on regional roads, 96 (15.45 per cent) on rural roads, 42 (6.76 per cent) on urban roads, and 4 (0.64 per cent) in other places.
The report reveals that in January, Dhaka division saw the highest number of accidents with 172 reported accidents resulting in 161 fatalities. Barishal division recorded the lowest number of accidents with just 31, while the division had also the lowest number of fatalities.
At least 23 people were killed and 31 were injured in 28 accidents in the capital city Dhaka, Road Safety Foundation data shows.
A total of 143 pedestrians were killed in road crashes in the country which is 23.51 per cent of the total deceased.
Moreover, twenty-six people were killed and seven were injured in accidents on rail tracks in the country during the same period.
According to the Road Safety Foundation, on an average around 20 people were killed in road accidents across the country every day in January.
The organisation identified several factors contributing to the high number of casualties on the country’s roads, including, reckless driving, slow-moving vehicles on highways, absence of fixed pay and working hours for drivers, inadequate traffic management, desperate motorbike riding by youths, lack of knowledge among people about the traffic rules, fragile traffic management, limited capacity of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), and prevalence of extortion within the public transport sector.
