Staff Reporter :
At least 418 people were killed and 844 injured in a total of 372 accidents across the country during the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays, Bangladesh Jatri Kallyan Samity said on Thursday.
According to the Samity, the percentage of road accident was 14.51 and the death rate was 22.35 percent.
In addition, 25 people were killed in 27 railway accidents and two were killed in two separate launch accident.
The Secretary General of Bangladesh Jatri Kallyan Samity Mozzamel Haque Chowdhury disclosed the accident related information from April 25 to May 8 at a press conference in the Dhaka Reporters Unity.
Like the previous years, the motorcycle accidents were on the top which claimed 145 lives out 164 accidents and injured 110 people.
The death rate of motorcycle accidents was 44.08 percent of the
total accidents and the death toll was 34.85 percent, the report said. Among the total deaths, at least 125 drivers were killed during the road accidents.
In addition, the accidents claimed the lives of 60 pedestrians, 35 women, 25 students and children, 12 transport workers, five political workers, two teachers, two freedom fighters, two DGFI and Navy personnel and one police and one physician.
Of the total accidents, 132 accidents occurred on the national highways, 87 on regional highways, 41 on rural roads, and 23 on city roads, the report said.
Of the accidents across the country, 4.63 percent took place in the capital while 2.41 percent in Chattogram city.
Mozzammel Haque said, “The delays in the completion of different government projects and the poor public transport system have caused the sufferings of the people during their journey. People used small transports including motorcycles in unusual number which triggers the accidents.”
He further said, “A large number of people went to their homes this time. Around 25 lakh motorcycles and 40 lakh Easy Bikes were in the roads to carry people home. This is a cause of the increase of road accidents.”
BUET Professor Hadiuzzaman said, “Every year the businessmen make a profit of about Tk 5000 crore by selling about five lakh motorcycles. But due to the accidents, the financial loss is about 20 to 25 thousand crore Taka. This transport can never be a public transport.”
Comparing with the road accidents in 2021, the road crush this year has increased by 14.51 percent and the percentage of death rate increased by 22.35 percent and injury case increased by 26.30 percent.
