Three people, including a child, have died in road accidents in Munshiganj and Jessore.
In Munshiganj, two persons were killed and another man was injured after being hit by a Dhaka-bound bus in the Jomaldi terminal area of Gazaria early Friday morning.
The deceased were identified as Ismail Hossain, 35, son of Ali Mia, and Abul Kalam Mollah, 26, son of Muslim Mollah.
In-charge of Bhaberchar Highway police outpost, Md Salah Uddin said the accident occurred when the three were waiting for a bus at the terminal.
"The driver lost control over the vehicle and rammed the trio. While two died on the spot, the injured has been admitted to a nearby hospital," the officer said.
Police have seized the bus, but its driver is absconding. "Efforts are on to nab him," he said.
In Jessore, a ten-year-old boy was killed after he was run over by a sand-laden tractor-trolley at Rahman intersection in Monirampur upazila Friday morning.
The deceased Sulaiman Hossain, son of Siddiqur Rahman of Mohonpur area, was a student at a local madrasa in the municipality.
Locals rescued Sulaiman to the nearest hospital but he was declared dead on arrival.
Mizanur Rahman, a physician at the emergency department of Monirampur hospital, said the child died before he could be brought to the hospital.
Monirampur police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Rafiqul Islam said: “We did not receive any formal complaints so the body of the child has been handed over to his family without a post-mortem.”
Road accidents in Bangladesh
Road accidents continue to rise in Bangladesh, with the country seeing 439 deaths in 417 accidents last month, according to Road Safety Foundation (RSF), an organisation working to ensure safer roads.
Nirapad Sarak Chai, a road safety advocacy group, in a report said that 5,227 people were killed in 4,702 road accidents in Bangladesh last year.
In a report released in February this year, the World Bank said Bangladesh needs to invest an estimated extra $7.8 billion over the next decade to halve its road crash fatalities.
The report pointed to the high death rate on Bangladesh’s roads caused by chronic lack of investment in systemic, targeted, and sustained road safety programmes.
The report said annual road crash deaths per capita in Bangladesh are twice the average rate for high-income countries and five times that of the best performing countries in the world. It highlights that children and working age population are most affected by road crash injuries in Bangladesh.
