As many as 439 people lost their lives in 417 road accidents across the country in November, along with 682 people being injured.
Motorbike accidents caused 141 deaths — 32.11% of the fatalities— from 128 accidents, according to a latest estimate by the Road Safety Foundation, a non-government organization, which was revealed on Saturday.
As many as 136 motorcycles were involved in the accidents.
Of the total fatalities, 64 were women and 53 were children. Also, 72 of the victims were students.
In October, there were 314 accidents that claimed 383 lives, which means road mishaps and deaths increased by 32.80% and 14.62%, respectively, last month.
Last month, 116 pedestrians were killed, accounting for 26.42% of the total casualties. At least 49 of the deceased — 11.16% of the total count — were transport workers.
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The Road Safety Foundation’s estimates were based on reports from seven national dailies, five online newspapers and other electronic media outlets.
According to the organization, highest 137 accidents (32.85%) occurred on regional roads, 113 accidents (27.09%) on rural roads, 111 accidents (26.61%) on national highways, 51 accidents (12.23%) on city streets and five (1.19%) at other spots.
At least 105 accidents occurred after drivers lost control of respective vehicles, followed by 97 mishaps due to head-on collisions of the vehicles involved.
Time analyses show that 6.95% of the accidents happened around sunset, 33.09% in the morning, 19.66% at noon, 16.06% in the afternoon, 12.70% in the evening and 11.51% at night.
Dhaka, both as a division and a district, witnessed the highest fatalities — 128 and 33 respectively. Sylhet Division saw 33 road crash related deaths — the lowest among all divisions. Bhola seems to be the least affected district as just one person died in the three accidents reported from the southern island district.
The report identified unfit vehicles, reckless driving, over-speeding, lack of skill, patience and physical-mental fitness of drivers, unsettled pay and working hours, plying of slow vehicles, rampant motorbike riding by youths, lack of awareness about traffic rules, poor traffic management system, lack of capacity of the authorities concerned and extortion in the transport sector for road accidents.
