Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity on Sunday demanded to start a complete data bank from the primary source under BRTA as a government initiative to reduce the loss of life and damage due to road accidents in the country.
The speakers opined that it is important to establish good governance on the roads to reduce road accidents and loss of life in the country.
The organization also feels the need to reform institutional inefficiencies.
They came up with the disclosure at a discussion titled "Need a complete data bank of road accidents from primary sources as a government initiative to achieve SDG goals" organized by Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity at Dhaka Reports Unity on Sunday.
In the meeting, Secretary General of the Samity Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said, ‘If we notice the overall picture of road accidents and loss of life, it seems that a terrible war is going on in the country's roads”.
Due to our limited capacity it is not possible to collect road accident database from primary sources. So we are making report on road accident report from newspaper as well as secondary sources. As a result, the real picture of the road accidents does not come up in our report.
We think that 30 to 35 percent road accidents are reported in the country's media.We can't monitor all the newspapers, so we can highlight 20 to 25 percent. BRTA has been trying to question these secondary source data at various times as exaggerated. But the primary sources do not feel the need to examine the actual situation of road accidents or the veracity of the World Health Organization reports. As a result, the real picture of road accidents does not reach the government. Due to this, the government is not able to take proper steps to control road accidents.Secretary General of the Samity said that according to BRTA's report, 5 thousand 24 people were killed and 7 thousand 495 injured in 5 thousand 495 road accidents in 2023. This road accident data is claimed to have been compiled by BRTA in coordination with various electronic and print media and the district administration and police department, but no hospital data has been taken here.
Although the BRTA claims that their road accident statistics are correct and accurate, the observation of the Jatri Kalyan Samity showed that 14 thousand 357 patients were admitted to the emergency department of National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) in 2023 due to road accident injuries. At the same time, 9,879 people were in the emergency department of Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
A total of 9 thousand 293 people in emergency department of Khulna Medical College Hospital. The image of Dhaka Medical College Hospital's emergency department has also emerged.
In the event, the former adviser to the caretaker government, president of the road safety alliance, economist Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman said, 'It is important to establish good governance on roads to reduce road accidents and loss of life in the country. There should be transparency and accountability of the financial assistance fund for the victims along with the creation of a complete road accident data bank. At the same time, people's awareness, involving common people in rescue activities of accident victims.
He also said, "Our road infrastructure is expanding, cars are increasing, but the issue of road safety has always been neglected."
