A total of 477 people lost their lives and 1,197 were injured in 488 accidents on Bangladesh’s roads, railways, and waterways in February, the Bangladdesh Jatri Kalyan Samity said on Friday.
Road accidents accounted for the highest number of fatalities.
The report, signed by the association’s General Secretary Md Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, was compiled by monitoring accident news in national, regional, and online newspapers. It showed that February saw 448 road accidents resulting in 447 deaths and 1,181 injuries. Railway incidents caused 26 deaths and 11 injuries in 34 accidents, while six waterway accidents led to four deaths and five injuries.
Motorcycle accidents were the deadliest on the roads, with 151 incidents causing 167 fatalities and 137 injuries. This represented 33.7% of all road accidents, 37.36% of road deaths, and 11.6% of road injuries. Dhaka Division recorded the highest number of road accidents, with 113 incidents causing 115 deaths and 387 injuries, while Barisal Division had the fewest, with 22 accidents, 19 deaths, and 85 injuries.
Among the victims were 56 law enforcement personnel, 93 drivers, 76 pedestrians, 20 transport workers, 58 students, 4 teachers, 63 women, 55 children, 2 journalists, 2 freedom fighters, and 6 political leaders or activists. Fatalities included 3 police officers, 3 army personnel, 1 fire service member, 2 Ansar members, 2 freedom fighters, 85 transport drivers, 72 pedestrians, 43 women, 41 children, 47 students, 12 transport workers, 4 teachers, and 5 political leaders or activists.
Data on 687 vehicles involved in road accidents showed 26.34% were motorcycles, 23.72% trucks, pickups, covered vans, or lorries, 15.28% buses, 14.26% battery-operated rickshaws and e-bikes, 4.8% CNG-powered auto-rickshaws, 8.87% Nasimn-Karimn-Mahindra tractors or Lagunas, and 6.47% cars, jeeps, or microbuses.
Analysis of accident types revealed 41.74% were run-over incidents, 33.25% head-on collisions, 17.18% loss-of-control crashes into ditches, 6.47% due to miscellaneous causes, 0.22% caused by scarves entangled in wheels, and 1.11% train-vehicle collisions.
The association highlighted key causes for road accidents, including inexperienced transport management, bureaucratic inefficiencies, policy and strategic weaknesses, uncontrolled movement of motorcycles and rickshaws, lack of road signs, markings, and streetlights, sudden feeder-road entries, absence of medians or road dividers, blind bends, highway construction defects, vehicle faults, traffic law violations, driving in the wrong direction, reckless or continuous driving, unskilled drivers, unfit vehicles, overloading, and passenger transport in cargo vehicles.