Fatal road accidents across the country including Dhaka city continued despite government initiatives to stop it. At least eight people were killed in Gaibandha and Dinajpur on Friday.
At least 1,756 people died and 1,123 were injured in 1,653 motorcycle accidents across the country in the last ten month of this year. The non-governmental organization Road Safety Foundation said.
At least six people have been killed as a bus rammed into a CNG-run auto-rickshaw at Gobindaganj upazila in Gaibandha district on Friday morning.
The incident took place on the Dhaka-Rangpur Highway at Bakchar area around 7:00am that also left two pedestrians injured.
Police and locals said a bus of Hanif Paribahan hit a
CNG-run auto-rickshaw, leaving three passengers of the auto-rickshaw dead on the spot and three others injured.
The injured were taken to Gobindaganj Upazila Health Complex but one of the injured died on the way. Moreover, two others were declared dead at the health complex on arrival.
Regarding the matter, Gobindaganj Highway Police Station Officer in-Charge Khairul Bashar said police seized the killer bus but its driver and his assistant managed to flee the scene.
Two people were killed as a truck smashed a van in Sadar upazila of Dinajpur district on Friday morning.
The deceased were identified as the van puller Narayan Chandra Roy, 40, and Swasadhar Babu Roy, residents Chawkrampur Balapara area under Shashra union in the upazila.
Kotwali Police Station Sub-Inspector Nur Alam said a truck rammed a van at Panchbari area, leaving the van puller dead on the spot and passenger Swasadhar critically injured.
The injured was rushed to Dinajpur M Abdur Rahim Medical College Hospital where he, later, died.
Police seized the killer truck but its driver and his assistant managed to flee the scene, he added.
The number of fatal accidents involving three-wheelers is increasing in rural areas as they run on highways side by side with speedy, bigger and stronger vehicles.
Talking on mobile phone, while riding bikes, is a major reason behind accidents, according to Road Safety Foundation. Imposing restriction on use of bikes by teens, and making training and driving licence mandatory for bikers is also necessary for reducing the number of accidents.
According to the Road Safety Foundation 1,026 people were killed in 1,011 motorcycle accidents in the country from January to October in 2020. In the 10 months from January to October this year, accidents increased by 63.60pc and fatalities increased by 71.35pc.
Among the dead, 1,327 people were aged 14 to 45 years. 72 teachers and 669 students were killed in the accident. 151 pedestrians were killed in motorcycle collision.
Observations show that of the accidents, 349 were head-on collisions with other vehicles, 583 were due to loss of control of the motorcycle, 715 were due to ramming or knocking off the roads by other vehicles and 6 due to other reasons.
According to the Road Safety Foundation's observation and analysis, 577 accidents occurred on highways, 526 on regional roads, 291 on rural roads and 256 on urban roads. Analysis of accidents shows that motorcyclists are solely responsible for 672 accidents.
The study called for controlling the production, sale and use of high-speed motorcycles, increasing the number of skilled drivers, fixing the salaries and working hours of public transport drivers, constructing road dividers on all highways and increasing the capacity of BRTA. The Road Transport Act-2018 needs to be implemented properly.
According to BRTA statistics, the number of total registered motor vehicles in the capital last year was 14.93 lakh out of which around 46 per cent is motorcycles.
The total number of registered motorbikes in Dhaka was 46,764 in 2015, which increased to 53,738 in 2016, to 75,251 in 2017, to 1.07 lakh in 2018 to 1.21 lakh in 2019 and over 1.32 lakh in 2020.
