In August, 502 people were killed and 1,232 were injured in 497 road accidents across the country. Among these, 165 were motorcycle accidents, resulting in 176 deaths and 144 injuries. These figures account for 33.19% of total accidents, 35.05% of fatalities, and 11.68% of injuries, according to Jatri Kalyan Samity’s Accident Monitoring Cell.
Jatri Kalyan Samity presented a report based on its media monitoring in a press release on Wednesday. The report was prepared by monitoring news of road, rail, and waterway accidents published in national, regional, and online newspapers.
Last month, altogether, 563 people were killed and 1,261 injured in 552 accidents on roads, railways, and waterways. Among these, 34 people were killed and 7 injured in 34 railway accidents.
Additionally, in 21 waterway accidents, 27 people were killed, 22 injured, and 13 had gone missing. In August, Dhaka division had the highest number of road accidents, with 132 incidents resulting in 128 deaths and 333 injuries. Conversely, the Barisal division had the fewest road accidents, with 15 incidents causing 14 deaths and 22 injuries.
The report stated that, among the victims of road accidents, 12 were members of law enforcement agencies, 162 were drivers, 82 were pedestrians, 19 were transport workers, 97 were students, 11 were teachers, 95 were women, 42 were children, one was a freedom fighter, one was a lawyer, three were journalists, and 26 were leaders and activists of various political parties.
Among those killed were one police member, one army member, one fire service member, one freedom fighter, one lawyer, 142 drivers, 82 pedestrians, 73 women, 38 children, 51 students, seven transport workers, seven teachers, and 11 leaders and activists of various political parties.
During this period, 789 vehicles were involved in road accidents. Among them, 26.10% were motorcycles, 24.71% were trucks, pickups, covered vans, and lorries, 15.8% were buses, 13.68% were battery-powered rickshaws and easy bikes, 7.35% were CNG-powered auto-rickshaws, and 6.59% were ‘Nasimon’, ‘Karimon’, Mahindra, tractors, and lagunas, while 6.46% were cars, jeeps, and microbuses.
In terms of accident types, 44.6% were due to vehicles running over people, 30.38% were head-on collisions, 19.19% were due to losing control and falling into ditches, 3.82% due to other reasons, 0.60% were caused by sarees getting tangled in wheels, and 1.20% were collisions with trains and other vehicles.
Analysis of accident locations shows that 45.7% of total accidents occurred on national highways, 26.55% on regional highways, and 20.32% on feeder roads. Additionally, 5.30% of total accidents nationwide occurred in the Dhaka metropolitan area, 1.81% in the Chattogram metropolitan area, and 1.20% at railway crossings.
