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Road crashes kill 207 in 11 days around Eid


Published : 26 Jul 2021 09:28 PM | Updated : 27 Jul 2021 12:32 AM

Within 11 days circulating around the time before and after Eid-ul-Azha, a total of 158 road accidents took place in the country claiming 207 lives and leaving 389 people injured.

The fatalities included 29 women and 17 children. A total of 87 people were killed in 76 motorcycle accidents, 43 pedestrians and 32 drivers and assistants were killed in accidents. During this time 2 people were killed and 28 injured in 4 boat accidents and a further two people were killed in two railway accidents.

The number of fatalities was learnt from the report on road accident taking place during the Eid-ul-Azha celebrations (between 14-24 July) by Saidur Rahman, executive director of the Road Safety Foundation on Monday.

According to reports, 87 motorcyclists and passengers, 12 bus passengers, 8 pick-up truck passengers, 13 microbus-private car passengers, 31 three-wheeler passengers (CNG-easybike-autorickshaw), 10 passengers of Nasimon-Mahindra-Chandergari and 3 cyclists lost their lives during the time.

According to the road safety authorities, 59 of the accidents occurred on national highways, 66 on regional roads, 14 on rural roads and 19 on urban roads. Of these, 46 were due to head-on collisions, 54 due to loss of control over steering, 42 due to running over pedestrians and 16 due to rear-end collision of vehicles.

According to media reports, the dead included an army member, 1 BGB member, 1 Satkhira government college professor, 6 teachers of various schools, colleges and madrasahs, 3 local journalists, 1 imam and 4 NGO officials.

Seven representatives of medicines and various product sales, 14 people of different local trades, 6 garment workers, 1 bicycle mechanic, 1 painter, 1 wood-worker, 2 people with mental and physical disability, 4 local political leaders. 38 students of different educational institutions of the country were killed.

The report informed that the 10 main causes of road accidents include: Faulty vehicles; reckless speeding; reckless driver mentality, incompetence and physical-mental illness of drivers; salaries and working hours not specified; low-speed traffic on highways; reckless motorcycle driving by youngsters; not knowing or disobeying traffic laws; poor traffic management; BRTA's lack of capacity and extortion in the public transport sector.

The organization also made 10-point recommendations to prevent road accidents. The recommendations include: Increasing the initiative to make drivers more skilled; specifying the driver's salary and working hours; enhancing capacity of the BRTA; ensuring uninterrupted application of traffic laws to transport owners, workers, passengers and pedestrians; Creating separate side lanes (service lanes) for high speed vehicles on highways; Constructing road dividers on all highways in phases; Stopping extortion on public transport; Reducing the pressure on roads by renovating and expanding railways and waterways; Formulating and implementing sustainable transport strategies and implementing 'Road Transport Act-2018' without any hindrance.