Every traffic crash is an individual loss. Many families in the country lose everything to road accidents. The victims of road accidents in the country are mostly the earning source of the family.
Both the incidents of deaths and injuries in road accidents in Bangladesh saw a drastic rise in 2021 compared to 2020, according to Road Safety Foundation (RSF).
Road Safety Foundation (RSF) estimated Tk 96.31 billion (9,631 crore) as the human resources loss from the fatalities in the accidents. This gives an account of the huge losses caused by road accidents at the national level. But it is difficult to calculate how much an accident can ruin a family.
This has a major impact on the country's economy. The Accident Research Institute (ARI) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) has prepared an account of the number of people killed and injured in accidents and the socio-economic loss of the people dependent on them.
According to the latest report of World Health Organization (WHO) on road accidents in 2021, Approximately 1.3 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes. Road traffic crashes cost
most countries 3 per cent of their gross domestic product.
More than half of all road traffic deaths are among vulnerable road users: pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.
About 93 per cent of the world's fatalities on the roads occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries have approximately 60 per cent of the world's vehicles.
Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged between 5-29 years. Between 20 and 50 million more people suffer non-fatal injuries, with many incurring a disability as a result of their injury.
Some 6,284 people were killed and 7,468 others injured in road accidents from January to December 2021 across the country while at least 5,431 people were killed and 7,379 others injured in road accidents in 2020, according to an annual report prepared by many organisations.
But what is the impact of road traffic injuries (RTIs) on the economic well-being of countries, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that are already struggling to address the needs of large populations in poverty?
By estimating the macroeconomic and welfare effects of road traffic injuries, the report tries both to deepen the analysis and to address the needs of two important groups of government stakeholders. Officials responsible for national infrastructure are interested in evaluating road safety interventions as economic investments. For these stakeholders, a key question is the relationship between the reduction of road injuries and national income growth as measured by GDP metrics. Public health officials, meanwhile, are focused on promoting health, preventing road traffic injuries and deaths, as well as on reducing their health and social burden. These two analytical perspectives illuminate and complement each other, although they each apply a different methodology for the measurement of economic impact. The present report thus attempts to address these specific aspects of economic impact, while providing a comprehensive overview of the challenge in estimating the social impact of RTIs.
Md Hadiuzzaman, director of ARI told media that if the number of casualties in road accidents this year is the same as the previous year, the financial loss will increase due to the increase in per capita income. Accidents and subsequent casualties are increasing in the country every year. So the amount of loss cannot be determined right now.
