Photo-collected.
Dhaka //

392 road accidents occurred in the country last September. 426 people lost their lives in these accidents. Besides, 813 people were injured. Among them, 179 people died in 164 motorcycle accidents. During this period 11 people were killed, 4 injured and 2 missing in 8 boating accidents. 13 killed and 9 injured in 17 rail track accidents.

This information is known in the accident report sent by the executive director of Road Safety Foundation, Saidur Rahman, on Monday (October 7) morning.

Road Safety Foundation prepared the report based on 9 national dailies, 7 news portals, various electronic media and own data. According to the statistics of vehicle-wise casualties, 179 motorcyclists and passengers, 25 bus passengers, 22 truck-pickup-tractor-trolley passengers, 24 private car-microbus passengers, three-wheeler passengers (easybike-CNG-autorickshaw-autovan) 63 people, 6 passengers in locally made vehicles (Nasimon-Bhavti-Almsadhu) and 10 bicycle-pedal rickshaw riders were killed.

According to the Road Safety Foundation’s monitoring and analysis, 162 of the accidents occurred on national highways, 144 on regional roads, 47 on rural roads and 34 on city roads and 5 at other locations. The number of vehicles involved in the accident is 632. Among them, Bus 98, Truck 106, Covered Van 18, Pickup 21, Tractor 11, Trolley 4, Lorry 10, Drum Truck 7, Oil Lorry 2, Road Roller 1, Microbus 16, Private Car 15, Ambulance 5, Pajero 2, Motorcycle 173, Three -Wheelers 96 (Easybike- CNG- Autorickshaw- Autovan- Laguna, locally made vehicles 18 (Nasimon- Bhatavti- Alamsadhu- Chander Car- Mahindra- Halobike, Bicycle-Rickshaw-Rickshawvan 13 and unidentified vehicles 16).

What are the main causes of road accidents?

The main causes of road accidents are mentioned as – Defective vehicles; reckless speed; recklessness, inefficiency and physical and mental illness of drivers; Non-fixed pay and working hours; Low speed vehicular traffic on highways; Reckless motorcycle riding by youth; Tendency of ignorance and disobedience of traffic laws among the public; poor traffic management; BRTA’s lack of capacity and extortion in the public transport sector.

Recommendations to reduce road accidents-

It is said as a recommendation – the initiative to create skilled drivers should be increased; Drivers must specify pay and working hours; BRTA needs to increase its capacity; Ensure unhindered enforcement of traffic laws to transport operators, passengers and pedestrians; To stop low-speed vehicles on highways and create separate side roads (service roads) for them; Road dividers should be constructed on all highways in phases; Extortion in public transport should be stopped; Renovate railways and waterways to reduce pressure on roads; Sustainable transport strategy should be formulated and implemented and ‘Road Transport Act-2018’ should be implemented smoothly.