There seems to be no attention paid by the authorities concerned to the continued road, rail and waterways accidents taking places almost on daily basis killing and injuring hundreds of people.
Reckless driving, unskilled drivers and poor condition of the transports are to be blamed for the majorities of the waterways, road railway mishaps which is said to be one of the highest in South Asia.
According to the Road Safety Foundation (RSF), an organisation working to ensure safer roads, in December last year, 464 people were killed in 402 road accidents across the country while 513 people were injured. The dead included 51 children and 76 women.
Of the deaths, a total of 17 people died in five waterway accidents while 19 died and four were injured in railway accidents. Of them, 147 were killed in 138 motorcycle accidents.
This information was given in a press release on Sunday in a report of the Road Safety Foundation (RSF). The report is based on information from 7 national daily newspapers, 5 online news portals and electronic media.
According to the statement of RSF, 124 road mishaps (30.84 percent) occurred on highways; 129 (32.08 percent) occurred on regional roads; and 104 (25.87 percent) incidents occurred on local roads.
The data said that most of the accidents took place in Dhaka division. Total 138 people died in 117 incidents of road crashes in this division.
According to the divisional statistics of accidents, Dhaka division has the highest number of accidents and deaths. 138 people were killed in 117 accidents in this section. The lowest number of accidents were in Rangpur division.
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Eighteen people have been killed in 20 accidents in this division. As a single district, Tangail district has the highest number of accidents and deaths. A total of 29 people has been killed in 16 accidents in this district. The lowest is in Pirojpur district. Only one person was killed in 2 accidents in the district.
The main causes of these accidents have been identified as unfit vehicles, reckless speed of vehicles, mentality of speed driving, inefficiency and physical and mental illness, unpaid wages and long working hours, reckless motorcycling of young men, violation of traffic laws and poor traffic management.
The foundation has made 10 recommendations to prevent road accidents. These are- increasing the number of skilled drivers, fixing driver's pay and working hours, increasing the capacity of BRTA and enforcement of traffic laws including on pedestrians.
It has been recommended to construct road dividers on all highways, stop extortion in public transport, reduce pressure on roads by repairing and expanding railways and waterways, formulate and implement sustainable transport strategies, and ensure proper implementation of Road Transport Act-2018.
The report pointed to the high death rate on Bangladesh’s roads caused by chronic lack of investment in systemic, targeted, and sustained road safety programs.
Meanwhile, 7 people were killed in a collision between a bus and an auto-rickshaw in Gachtala area under Mymensingh’s Tarakanda upazila on Sunday.
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