Injury-related deaths on the rise
The findings of the second Bangladesh Health Injury Survey (BHIS), 2016 carried out by the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) was revealed yesterday and the four leading contributors to injury-related deaths came from suicide, traffic accident, drowning and fall. Some 15,000 people fell to their deaths from high places, 9,210 deaths occurred due to electrocution, a little more than 19,200 children drowned, nearly 24,000 people committed suicide (which is several times more than the number of people murdered: 6,475); but the most shocking figure comes from road accidents, which resulted in 23,166 deaths! The media has been crying hoarse on the issue over the years and now there is irrefutable proof that our roads and highways have turned into death traps for people.
According to CIPRB data, some 50 adults are dying daily, on average, due to traffic-accident injuries. With such data now made available, all we can hope for is some impetus on the part of authorities to do something to address the multifarious problems we face on our roads with regards to passenger safety. While rural children learn swimming in ponds, where do our urban children go? No ponds and no swimming pools mean generations growing up without lifeskills. The media constantly covers the hazards of live wires left haphazardly in the city and the dire lack of safety for construction workers, and yet these are hardly ever looked into. Homicides apart, the rise in stalking and dowry-related violence is opening the doors to increasing suicides and this is a social malaise that requires engagement among government, the people and health practitioners. At the end of the day, these are all avoidable deaths and authorities need to address them seriously to save lives.
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