Youth demand central database to track road crash deaths

Youth representatives from various organizations have urged the government to launch a unified national database to ensure accurate reporting of road crash fatalities and injuries and strengthen preventive measures.
 
They stressed that discrepancies in data reported by government and non-government organizations make it difficult to determine the actual toll of road crashes and formulate effective, evidence-based policies.

The demand was made through a press release issued on Thursday  to mark National Road Safety Day. 

The press release stated that, according to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), 5,490 people were killed in road crashes in 2025 while Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association reported 9,111 deaths and 14,812 injuries in 6,729 crashes.

Another set of figures for the same year recorded 7,584 crashes, resulting in 7,359 deaths and 16,476 injuries. Significant discrepancies were also observed in road crash fatality figures for 2024. According to BRTA, 5,380 people were killed in road crashes that year, while the Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association reported 8,543 deaths and the Road Safety Foundation recorded 7,294 fatalities.

Moreover, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Status Report on Road Safety 2023, an estimated 31,578 people died in road crashes in Bangladesh in 2021. 

The significant disparity between this estimate and domestic official figures highlights the need to address existing gaps in road crash data collection, verification and coordination.

According to the youth organizations, a centralised database containing information on the location, time and type of road crashes, vehicles involved, road conditions, and the number of people killed or injured would help identify high-risk roads and the causes of crashes, enabling more effective preventive measures. It would also facilitate the assessment of road safety initiatives and strengthen accountability.