No respite from horrific road crashes; ‘1,027 dead in Jan, Feb’

Drivers still reckless; blame also goes to growing small vehicles

Dhaka
March 06, 2020, 08:16 PM
by Mohd Jahangir Alam

UNB News
Dhaka
Publish- March 06, 2020, 08:16 PM
Mohd Jahangir Alam
Update- March 07, 2020, 09:00 AM

No respite from horrific road crashes; ‘1,027 dead in Jan, Feb’

Roads in Bangladesh still remain too dangerous for passengers and pedestrians as 1,027 people, including 141 women and 166 children, were killed while 1,301 others injured in 755 road accidents across the country in January and February last, according to a report prepared by a non-governmental organisation.

Green Club of Bangladesh (GCB) prepared the report based on news carried out by 24 national dailies, 12 regional newspapers and 10 online news portals.

UNB obtained a copy of the report on Friday.

The report came at a time when 21 people were killed and many others injured in road accidents in Habiganj, Brahmanbaria, Feni, Mymensingh and Dhaka districts on Thursday night and Friday morning.

Of them, nine died in a single road crash in Habiganj and six others in another road accident in Brahmanbaria.

According to the report, the accidents took place on different highways, and national, inter-district and regional roads mainly for reckless driving and an increase in the number of motorcyclists and three-wheelers on roads and highways.

As per the report, 487 people were killed in road accidents in January while the number was 540 in February. Besides, 622 and 679 people got injured in the two months respectively.

The number of road crashes reported in January was 357 while it was 398 in February.

The organisation has identified 10 major reasons behind the rise in road accidents.

The reasons include an increase in the number of motorcycles and three-wheelers on roads and highways, plying of locally-made motorised vehicles on busy roads, reckless driving and competition among drivers, lack of implementation of the law to stop the plying of unfit vehicles, employment of drivers without licences and leasing out of vehicles on a daily contract basis to unskilled drivers or conductors.

The tendency of overloading and overtaking by drivers violating traffic rules, long-haul driving without any interval, lack of awareness among pedestrians and small vehicle drivers, especially motorcyclists, violation of traffic rules on long routes and overcrowded areas and dilapidated roads in different parts of the country are also among the reasons.

“If we analyse the road accidents, we’ll see that those took place mainly due to the reckless driving and a tendency of competition among drivers,” GCB General Secretary Ashis Kumar Dey told UNB.