At least 270 people were killed and 1,219 injured in 306 road accidents that occurred from January to August this year in Chittagong city and 14 upazilas under the district, according to a report by the Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh (PWAB).
Monitoring news on road accidents published in the country’s national dailies, the organisation’s road accident monitoring cell published the report on Saturday, pointing out poor traffic management, reckless driving, unfit vehicles plying the roads, and the lack of awareness of the commuters and passers-by’s to be the main reasons behind these accidents.
Illegal establishments beside the roads, markets, and small vehicles on larger roads also contribute to these accidents, said Mojammel Haque Chowdhury, president of the PWAB’s Chittagong regional committee.
According to the report, at least 74 children, 96 pedestrians, 110 women, 5 physicians, 7 teachers, 32 leaders of different political organisations, 74 students, 101 drivers and transport workers, 27 police members, and 15 army and BGB personnel were among the road accident victims in the district in the past eight months.
The highest number of road accidents occurred in August – 52 accidents killed 58 people and injured 219 others.
Most of these accidents took place on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, while the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar highway was the second risky road. Sitakunda and Mirsarai at the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, and Potiya, Chandanaish, Lohagora and Chokoria at the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar highway are the most vulnerable areas for accidents, the report said.
Bigger vehicles like trucks and covered vans cause the accidents on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, while micro buses, easybikes, Nasiman-Karimans, auto-rickshaws and battery-run rickshaws are more accident-prone on the Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar highway, it added.
Mojammel, the regional head of the PWAB in Chittagong, said the numbers of road accidents were less in the city than in any other parts of the district.
“At least 25-30 accidents were caused by battery-run rickshaws in the city everyday, which stopped after the vehicle was banned in a High Court ruling on August 31,” he said.
Morshedul Alam Kaderi, president of Chittagong Zilla Sarak Paribahan Malik Group, said unskilled drivers were also a major reason, while some drivers let their helpers drive their vehicles, which resulted in road accidents sometimes.
“The competitive tendency in the drivers on the streets also causes these accidents,” he said.
However, Belayet Hossain Sikdar, assistant superintendent of Highway Police (East) in Chittagong Zone, claimed that traffic management was related to traffic congestion, not road accidents.
“We have manpower and logistical shortages, which make it difficult for us to manage the entire highway’s traffic,” he said.
“Dilapidated conditions of the roads and the increasing number of vehicles with unskilled drivers are the reasons behind these road accidents,” the police official said.
Engineer Suvash Barua, a traffic specialist in Chittagong, told the Dhaka Tribune that most of the roads had not been designed and constructed appropriately, and many roads had no traffic lights.
“The government should look into road safety to help reduce the frequency of road accidents,” he said.
