576 Dead in 505 Road Accidents in July

In 505 road accidents across the country in July, 576 people were killed and 1,055 were injured, according to a report by Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity.

In 47 train accidents, there were 48 fatalities, while in 16 canal occurrences, there were 21 fatalities and 15 injuries.

Following research of accident reports that had been published at the time in national and regional newspapers across the country as well as online news portals, the study was made public today.

In all, 644 accidents on railways, waterways, and highways across the country led to 1,075 injuries and 644 fatalities.

Last month, there were almost 180 motorcycle collisions across the country, resulting in 145 fatalities and 122 injuries.

Drivers, 77 pedestrians, 17 transport workers, 29 students, 7 teachers, 3 law enforcement officers, 1 army personnel, 1 navy personnel, 1 Border Guard Bangladesh member, 1 fire service man, 82 women, 42 children, and 7 political activists were among the 119 people killed in road accidents in July.

The highest number of fatalities and injuries—173—occurred in 157 traffic incidents in the Dhaka division, while the lowest number—38—occurred in 23 accidents in Barishal.

Buses made up 18.74 percent of the vehicles involved in the accidents, followed by pick-up vans, covered vans, and lorries (22.84), private cars, jeeps, and microbuses (6.83%), CNG-powered autorickshaws (5.74%), motorbikes (24.99), battery-powered human haulers (15.32%), and three-wheelers (4.51%).

Of the accidents, 38.61 percent occurred on national highways, 30.69 on regional highways and 24.15 percent on roads.

Besides, 5.34 percent accidents occurred in Dhaka city, 0.39 percent in Chattogram city and 0.79 percent on rail tracks.

The association identified plying of slow-moving three-wheelers and human-haulers on highways, increase of the movement of three-wheelers, lack of street nights and road signs, violation of traffic rules, movement of unfit vehicles, faulty construction work on highways, dangerous overtaking, carrying passengers on goods-laden vehicles, extortion, unskilled drivers and helpers and reckless driving as the reasons behind the road accidents.