Staff Reporter :
At least 224 people were killed and 866 injured in 203 road accidents in 12 days of this month (August) across the country, a passengers’ welfare platform said on Sunday .
Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity prepared the statistics on the basis of news published in 41 national and regional newspapers and 11 online news portals from August 6 to August 17, Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, Secretary General of the association, said in a press briefing held at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on Sunday .
The report was made on basis of news published in 41 national and regional dailies and 11 online news portals, Mozammel said.
In his written statement, Mozammel said, a total of 253 people have been killed and 908 injured in 244 accidents in road, rail, and waterways in 12 days from August 6 to August 17.
However, he said, the sufferings of passengers increased this year due to charging extra fare, tailbacks on roads and highways, train schedule collapse and black marketing of tickets and chaos at ferry terminals.
Among the deaths in road accidents, the Jatri Kalyan Samity secretary general said 52.21 per cent were of pedestrians who were run over by vehicles while 34.37 were of motorbike riders.
He said, the 85.21 per cent road accidents will be possible to control during the next Eid holding only by curbing motorbike accidents and running over the pedestrians by vehicles.
Of the 203 road accidents, Mozammel said that 27.4 per cent was caused by buses, 26.33 per cent by motorbikes, 16.4 per cent by trucks, pickup vans, covered vans and lorries, 7.82 per cent by microbus and cars, 13.52 per cent by auto-rickshaws, 3.55 per cent by human-haulers and 4.98 per cent by battery-run rickshaws and easy-bikes.
He said the plying of vehicles without fitness, reckless and nonstop driving, unskilled drivers and their assistants, plying of slow-moving three-wheelers and human-haulers on highways, using motorbikes for long journeys and lack of sufficient footpaths are the main reasons behind the accidents.
