At least 323 people were killed and 622 others were injured in 318 road accidents during the Eid holiday despite the restrictions on public transports to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity revealed the information in a report in a press briefing at the National Press Club in the capital city on Sunday.
Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of the organisation said during the event that the movement of public was limited during the holiday due to the lockdown. But as the inter-district transports were suspended, people used alternative ways to travel. Travelling in private vehicles, especially private cars, microbuses, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, battery-powered rickshaws, trucks, pickups and covered vans have increased the number of accidents on the roads in this Eid.
According to the report, a total of 331 people died in 323 accidents on the road, rail and waterway.
Two people were killed in two accidents on the railways and six people were killed and 100 were injured in three accidents on the waterway.
The government managed to keep the Covid-19 deaths limited to 514 people during this time by spending a lot of money and enforcing lockdown. But a large number of people died in road accidents in the meantime. No measures were taken and there was no allocation of money for the prevention of these accidents, the report added.
The report shows that, as usual, motorcycle accidents are at the top of the list of accidents. 139 people were killed and 199 were injured in 144 motorcycle accidents this Eid which is 45.28 percent of the total road accidents, 43.03 percent of the fatalities and 31.99 percent of the injured.
According to the information provided by Jatri Kalyan Samity, this is the highest number of deaths in road accidents during the Eid in last six years. According to the estimates given by the organization, 121 people died in 2016, 205 in 2017, 277 in 2018, 232 in 2019 and 149 died in 2020.
The report was prepared on the basis of news published in the media. The organisation made a few recommendations to decrease accidents across the country.
