A bus plunged into the Padma River at Daulatdia ferry ghat in Rajbari in the afternoon, sending waves of fear as rescue teams rushed to the scene.
With at least 26 dead, each family’s pain, especially right after the festivities of Eid, is clear.
Eid is meant to be a time of joy, a time of reunion and laughter. Yet every year, the highways and waterways of Bangladesh become rivers of grief.
In Comilla, a train collided with a bus at an unmanned level crossing, killing 12 people, including children.
Each crash leaves families shattered and hearts heavy.
In the ongoing Eid-ul-Fitr travel period of 2026, at least 204 people have died, and more than 600 have been injured in 264 road accidents, according to the Road Safety Foundation.
Each number is a life, a heartbeat gone too soon.
Mothers waiting for sons, fathers hoping for daughters, children dreaming of home.
All of them caught in a moment that should have been a simple bus ride, a train journey, a boat across the river.
This sorrow is nothing new. In 2025, nearly 249 lives were lost, and more than two thousand were injured across the Eid travel period.
In 2023, at least 355 people died on roads, railways, and waterways during Eid, including 328 in road accidents alone.
Year after year, the stories repeat.
Roads become rivers of vehicles pushing against fatigue and time. Vehicles carry more than luggage; they carry the hope of home and the risk of death.
The tragedy is not only the accidents themselves. It is a mirror of systemic failure.
Multiple governments have been in power over the years, yet roads remain unsafe, traffic rules are weakly enforced, ferries sail without proper checks, and buses are overloaded.
Drivers are pushed to exhaustion, and regulations are often ignored in the rush to meet demand.
Human error alone cannot explain the scale of loss; the responsibility lies with a system that has failed across administrations and time, one that treats convenience above life.
Every loss turns a home into silence. A chair goes unfilled, the rooms fall still, and the brightness of celebration fades.
Eid should be a time to gather, rejoice, and remember that life is fragile and love is stronger than distance.
But if we continue to ignore the risks and systemic flaws, the journey home will always carry a blood price.
Muhammad Ibrahim Mojid is a Journalist and SAF Scholar.