In August, 467 road accidents occurred across the country, leading to the deaths of 476 people and injuries to 985.
This information was revealed in the monthly monitoring report by the Accident Monitoring Cell of the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samiti (BJKS).
The data was shared in a press release signed by Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of the organization, on Thursday.
The report is compiled based on news reports of road, rail, and maritime accidents published in national, regional, and online newspapers.
Motorcycles were involved in the highest number of accidents, with 193 incidents resulting in 206 deaths and 201 injuries.
These account for 41.32% of total accidents, 43.27% of fatalities, and 20.40% of injuries.
According to the report, eight people were killed and two injured in 10 railway accidents in August. Meanwhile, 50 people were killed, two injured, and nine went missing in 13 accidents on waterways. In total, 534 people were killed and 989 injured in 490 road, rail, and maritime accidents.
Most accidents in Dhaka
Dhaka division recorded the highest number of road accidents, with 121 people killed and 261 injured in 117 incidents.
Barisal division had the lowest number of road accidents, with 26 people killed and 93 injured in 27 incidents.
Among the deceased were one law enforcement officer, 90 drivers, 75 pedestrians, 39 transport workers, 54 students, one teacher, 66 women, 49 children, three journalists, one lawyer, and 12 members of political parties.
A detailed breakdown shows that 745 vehicles were involved in the road accidents. Of these, 31.67% were motorcycles, 21.20% were trucks, pickups, or covered vans, 10.33% were buses, 14.36% were battery-powered rickshaws and easy bikes, 8.45% were CNG auto-rickshaws, 7.78% were vehicles like Nasimon, Karimon, Mahindra, and tractors, while 6.17% were cars, jeeps, or microbuses.
Types of accidents
Of the total accidents, 41.54% were due to vehicle rollovers, 33.19% resulted from head-on collisions, 22.5% involved vehicles losing control and falling into ditches, 2.56% were due to miscellaneous reasons, 0.42% were collisions with trains, and 0.21% were due to rollovers.
A breakdown by road types shows that 33.83% of accidents occurred on national highways, 20.77% on regional highways, and 39.18% on feeder roads.
Additionally, 4.49% of accidents took place in Dhaka, 1.28% in Chittagong, and 0.42% at railway crossings.
Causes of accidents
The report highlighted several key reasons for road accidents in August, including free movement of vehicles in violation of traffic laws due to an absence of traffic and highway police, lack of road signs, road markings, and lighting on national highways, creation of large potholes on roads due to heavy rain, increasing the risk for vehicles, lack of towing signs on national, regional, and feeder roads, accidents involving inexperienced drivers, defects in highway construction and vehicles, and disobedience of traffic laws, reckless driving, reverse driving, road hawking, and passenger transport in cargo vehicles and unfit vehicles, overloading of passengers, and drivers working overtime without rest.
