Though road accidents are a cause for serious concern in the country, there is no verifiable databank on the number of accidents in the country, as well as the number of deaths and injuries per accident.
Various government and other organisations have their own sets of data on road accident casualties, but there is a significant discrepancy among these data sets.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), which is in charge of road transport regulation, collects all the information regarding the road accidents that occur every month from the police headquarters. However, they only receive the information that are recorded by police through First Information Report (FIR) and cases.
“We get the information from the FIRs and complaints on road accidents. But there are indeed many cases which are not filed with police. So after a certain point, we have to work on estimation,” said Muhammad Showkat Ali, secretary at the BRTA.
He also mentioned that there were road safety monitoring councils in every district, supervised by the district administrations, which are supposed to keep records on the road accidents, but are not active.
According to police sources, around 3,000 people die in road accidents annually across the country. However, a World Bank study conducted in 2010 puts the figure at 12,000 per year, while a World Health Organisation study in 2011 says it is 18,000.
Ilyas Kanchan, actor, prominent road safety activist and chairman of Nirapad Sarak Chai (We Demand Safe Roads), said the disparity among various organisations’ data on road accidents were alarming.
“According to Buet’s Accident Research Institute (ARI), the death toll rate from road accidents is around 10,000-12,000 every year, while countless people are injured or become disabled. The BRTA, on the other hand, says the number of death is nearly 4,000. Our own observation says it is around 15,000 people,” he told the Dhaka Tribune, adding that the annual loss due to road accidents amounts to around Tk5,000 crore to Tk7,000 crore.
“A uniform system needs to be in place to monitor and collect data on road accidents. In most of the cases, it is the unskilled drivers who cause the accidents. The authorities must ensure proper monitoring while issuing driving licences in order to reduce the accidents,” he said.
Ilyas Kanchan’s claims were echoed by Samsul Haque, former director at the ARI and a professor at the civil engineering department at Buet.
“Unskilled drivers are a major reason behind the frequent road accidents. The authorities concerned should test the drivers’ skills properly before issuing drive licences, otherwise it would not be possible to reduce the number of road accidents,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
An alarming picture
A study on road accidents by local organisation Jatri Kalyan Samity was released on Wednesday at National Press Club in the capital, which states that around 30 people on average die every day due to road accidents, the annual number being 10,000 to 12,000.
Sources in Police, BRTA and Road Transport and Highways Division said the number of road accidents increased particularly during winter and monsoon in the country.
This winter, several fatal road accidents occurred in different parts of the country.
In the past few days, 19 accidents occurred in different areas across the country that killed at least 42 people and injured a large number of others.
On Tuesday, eight passengers died in Jhalakathi, and on Wednesday 10 died in Tangail due to road accidents.
On November 29, prominent journalist Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury died after being struck by a reckless bus driver in the capital’s Kawran Bazar area.
In October, 36 people died in Natore in a fatal crash between two buses.
Speaking at the research presentation of Jatri Kalyan Samity on Wednesday, columnist Syed Abul Maksud said the government had no proper system to prevent or reduce road accidents.
“If a disease was causing 10,000-12,000 people to die, it would have caused a global stir. But people have gotten accustomed to road accidents.
“The government has to formulate an appropriate policy in this sector and implement it properly to reduce road accidents,” he said.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, MAN Siddique, secretary at the Road Transport and Highways Division, said it was true that many people died in road accidents, but it was not because of road-related problems.
“Both the drivers and the road users are responsible for the road accidents, and it is possible to reduce their number by strengthening the relevant authorities to enforce road safety,” he said.
