Bangladesh saw approximately 5,485 road accidents in the first nine months of this year, which resulted in the deaths of 5,598 people and injuries to over 9,600 others, according to the Road Safety Foundation.
The foundation published its report on Sunday, compiling data from nine national dailies, seven online news portals, electronic media and the organization’s own records.
Road accidents continue to claim lives daily throughout the year.
In the first nine months of the year, 33.71% of accidents occurred on national highways.
An analysis of road accident reports indicates that highways are the most frequent sites for these incidents, with a significant number happening in the early hours of the morning.
The RSF report further reveals that 677 women and 729 children lost their lives in road accidents this year.
Among the fatalities, 1,924 people died in 2,041 motorcycle accidents, accounting for 34.36% of the total number of deaths.
The motorcycle accident rate stood at 37.21%, the highest among all vehicle types.
The analysis highlights that motorcycle accidents on highways remain a significant issue, as there has been little success in controlling them.
Additionally, 1,121 pedestrians were killed in road accidents, representing 20% of the total number of fatalities, while 688 people, or 12.29%, were vehicle drivers and their assistants.
Compared to rural areas and regional cities, the number of accidents in urban areas was slightly lower.
According to the RSF’s monitoring and analysis, 2,134 accidents (38.90%) occurred on regional roads, 771 (14.05%) on rural roads, 670 (12.21%) on city roads and 61 (1.11%) in other locations.
The Road Safety Foundation's report also notes that 124 people were killed, 125 injured and 19 went missing in 83 waterway accidents during the first nine months of this year.
Additionally, 243 railway accidents resulted in 227 deaths and 223 injuries.
Statistics on vehicle-related fatalities indicate that 293 bus passengers (5.23%) were killed, along with 420 people (7.50%) on goods-laden vehicles (such as trucks, pickups, covered vans, tractors, trolleys and lorries), 295 passengers (5.26%) in cars, microbuses, ambulances and jeeps, and 1,097 passengers (19.59%) in three-wheelers (like CNG-run autorickshaws, easy bikes and battery-powered autorickshaws).
The report identifies the main causes of road accidents as follows: defective vehicles, reckless speeding, driver incompetence and physical or mental illness, irregular driver wages and working hours, low-speed vehicles on highways, reckless motorcycle riding by youth, public disregard for traffic laws, lack of women-, child- and disabled-friendly road transport, poor traffic management, insufficient capacity of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), and extortion within the public transport sector.