Motorcycles account for 44pc of deaths
Motorcycle-related road deaths rose 10 percentage points during this year’s Eid-ul-Azha holiday period compared to last year, with reckless riding by teenagers and young adults emerging as a defining factor in the country’s worsening traffic safety crisis.
Data released Thursday by the Road Safety Foundation showed that 292 road accidents killed 281 people and injured at least 837 others across the country during the 13-day period spanning May 21 to June 2 — bracketing the Eid holiday. Among the dead were 34 women and 48 children.
Of those fatalities, 124 — or 44.12% — died in 141 motorcycle accidents. A year earlier, during the 12-day Eid-ul-Azha window in 2025, motorcycles accounted for 34.29% of road deaths, with 107 killed in 121 crashes.
The share of motorcycle accidents among all road accidents also climbed sharply, from 34.87% last year to 48.28% this year.
The most alarming dimension of the data: 57% of all motorcycle accident victims this year were between the ages of 14 and 20.
“No Improvement” in Transport Management
Despite a modest overall decline in total road deaths — 281 this year compared to 312 during a slightly shorter window last year — the Road Safety Foundation was unequivocal in its assessment.
“The reduction in casualties does not indicate any improvement,” the organisation stated in its report, adding that “no managerial improvement has taken place in the transport sector.”
Eleven pedestrians were killed after being struck by motorcycles ridden recklessly by teenagers and young men, the report noted.
Roads and Regions
The foundation’s analysis found that regional roads bore the heaviest burden, accounting for 38.35% of all accidents, followed by national highways at 33.21% and rural roads at 14.38%.
Dhaka Division recorded the highest toll — 101 deaths across 95 accidents. Sylhet Division saw the fewest incidents, with 7 people killed in 9 crashes. Among individual districts, Faridpur was the deadliest, with 28 people killed in 19 accidents.
Beyond road accidents, the reporting period also saw 13 waterway incidents that killed 8 and injured 15, while 22 railway accidents claimed 17 lives and left 9 injured.
A Catalogue of Causes
The Road Safety Foundation attributed the carnage to a convergence of structural and behavioural failures: defective vehicles, excessive speeding, driver incompetence and poor physical and mental health, the absence of regulated wages and working hours, the presence of slow-moving vehicles on highways, reckless motorcycle use by young riders, widespread ignorance of and disregard for traffic laws among the general public, and weak traffic enforcement.
Pedestrians accounted for 37 deaths — 13.16% of the total — while drivers and their assistants made up another 33 fatalities, or 11.74%.
