Reckless drivers are the core reason behind the staggering number of road accidents across the country.
A number of transportation experts believe that 'heavy traffic jam in the city makes the transport workers more reckless as they fail to make targeted number of trips, making drivers more aggressive as gridlock cuts down their income."
According to Accident Research Institute (ARI) "Traffic accidents are becoming more frequent because of reckless driving, aggressive overtaking, urgency to make more trips, pedestrians not using the foot over bridge and widespread lack of awareness on the road."
"The trip based system and drivers paying daily rent to bus owners are major reasons behind the rising number of road accidents. Drivers pay most of the operating cost, leading to fierce competition among them on the road."
Experts have recommended a number of moves to improve the current road safety issues, such as repairing the roads, improving the traffic police control system and ensuring more cooperation between the workers and owners.
The public transport system frequently comes to a halt on the streets of Dhaka for long periods of time, which is quite common. But the problem becomes unbearable in summer due to the heat.
"Unable to suffer the
summer heat for an extended period of time, the passengers push the drivers to drive faster. The drivers comply with the passengers' demand most of the time."
Commenting on the alarming rise in road accidents, he said, "Pedestrians have a habit of walking on the streets haphazardly, which in turn increases the risk of road accidents. But most of the time, the vehicle driver is blamed for an incident."
In the last two decades, no fewer than 56,987 people were killed in 58,208 road accidents across Bangladesh, according to the ARI of BUET.
To put it another way, almost 8 people lost their lives on roads each day in the last 20 years.
Experts said small vehicles - defying a ban - ply highways and often collide with large vehicles, which leads to a staggering number of fatalities on roads.
Two other big reasons behind the accidents are disorderly movement of vehicles and the reckless attitude of drivers, they said.
Drivers are, directly or indirectly, responsible for 90 per cent of the road accidents, according to the ARI.
According to data collected by the ARI from 2001 to 2020, the figures for road accidents and consequent deaths have increased gradually. The numbers started to decrease in the 2009-2014 period but have almost doubled since 2015.
The ARI said 4,357 people were killed and 7,226 injured in 3,939 road accidents in 2019. In comparison, 3,079 road accidents in 2020 left 3,545 dead and 4,450 injured.
The ARI said 43 per cent of the total road accidents occur on national highways. The reasons behind this are driving without a driver's licence, careless and faulty driving and the plying of three-wheelers and motorcycles on highways.
