Five people including four members of a family were killed and two others injured when a truck rammed a CNG run auto-rickshaw on Sylhet-Tamabil highway at Pakhibil in Jointapur upazila on Sunday. The deceased were identified as Hossain Ahmed, 35, driver of the CNG run auto-rickshaw, Sadia Begum, 35, wife of Jamal Ahmed, their four month old baby boy Shahadat Hossain, daughter Sabia Begum, 7, and Habibunnesa, 33, sister-in-law of Sadia. The accident occurred around 6:45 am when the Jaflong-bound stone-laden truck hit the Sylhet-bound CNG- run auto-rickshaw, leaving five people dead on the spot and two others injured, said Dastagir Ahmed, officer-in-charge of Jointapur Police Station. The injured- Mohammad Zakaria, 50, brother-in-law of Sadia and his wife Hasina Begum, 40, of Rupchang village in the upazila, were taken to a local hospital. Also read: 4 of a family among 11 killed in Sylhet, Gaibandha, Habiganj road accidents Road accidents in Bangladesh Road accidents claim hundreds of lives every year in Bangladesh. In January this year, at least 484 people were killed in 427 road crashes. According to Road Safety Foundation (RSF), accident rates jumped by 25.58 percent and fatalities by 8.76 percent in January compared to the same period last year. At least 445 lives were lost in 340 road accidents in January 2020, according to RSF. Besides, a total of 409 pedestrians, including 66 women and 97 children, were killed between January and March this year in road accidents, according to the Road Safety Foundation (RSF), which was published in April 12. A report prepared by RSF with information collected from seven national dailies, five online portals and electronic media reports, blamed 61.8 percent of the accidents on reckless driving and 38.19 percent on the insincerity of pedestrians. Also Read- Bangladesh's roads remain perilous; 37,170 killed in 5 years In a report released in February 2020, the World Bank said that Bangladesh needs to invest an estimated extra $7.8 billion over the next decade to halve its road crash fatalities. The report attributed the high death rate on Bangladesh’s roads to a lack of investments in systemic, targeted, and sustained road safety programmes.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday cleared six development projects, including a Tk 3,586-crore one to upgrade Sylhet-Tamabil Highway into a four-lane one.