Staff Correspondent

A total of 534 people were killed and 1,169 were injured in 504 road accidents last month, Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity said in a report yesterday.

Additionally, 48 people died and 13 were injured in 56 incidents of railway accidents; 40 people died, 56 were injured, and 64 were missing in nine incidents in inland waterways, it said in a press release.

The information was disclosed in a report by Jatri Kalyan Samity’s Road Accident Monitoring Cell, the press release added. The report was prepared based on news published in different newspapers.

According to the report, reckless driving, overtaking, unfit vehicles, carelessness of passengers and pedestrians, unskilled drivers, culture of impunity due to no enforcement of traffic rules are among the chief reasons behind the accidents.

Some of the recommendations mentioned in the report are: strict enforcement of Road Transport Law 2018 through establishing CCTV cameras digitally; a campaign on TV and newspapers to prevent road accidents; evicting floating markets and freeing up footpaths, roads; training drivers of public vehicles; and modernising the process of giving license to drivers and fitness certificates to vehicles.

Jatri Kalyan Samity, a platform working for passengers’ welfare, is known for its periodic publication of reports on road accident statistics.

In 2019, the organisation reported that at least 7,855 people were killed and 13,330 others were injured in 5,516 road crashes across the country. This means that on average, 21 people lost their lives on the road each day.

This was a 8.07 percent increase on 2018’s tally, which stood at 7,221 deaths, 15,466 injuries in 5,514 accidents, said the samity.

In addition to the reasons cited above, the organisation also blames fault in road design, use of mobile phones or headphone while driving, and drunk driving for the reasons behind road accidents.