Road accident: Tk 10 lakh demanded for each killed

Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a group working on road safety, today demanded Tk 10 lakh for the family of each victim killed in road accidents and Tk 5 lakh for the injured persons.

It also demanded full implantation of the existing law in all road accident cases.

According to the existing law, families of each deceased are entitled to Tk 5 lakhs and the injured to Tk 3 lakhs from the road accident victims' financial assistance fund.

On the eve of National Road Safety Day, Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of the Samity, placed the demands at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity in Dhaka today.

According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), around 4,016 road accidents occurred from January to September this year, killing 3,727 people and injuring 5,781.

According to those statistics, the families of the deceased are entitled to Tk 186.35 crore and the injured are entitled to Tk 173.43 crore in compensation, he said.

On Thursday, for the first time, the government provided compensation worth Tk 7.8 crore to 162 road crash victims and their families.

Mozammel also said, even though the BRTA and the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry have formed Road Safety Units, they do not have any research to prevent road accidents. As a result, the number of road accidents and deaths is increasing every year.

The organisation also demanded an extension of the deadline for applying for financial assistance to one year from one month, transparency and accountability in releasing the fund, and introduction of an e-traffic prosecution system with CCTV cameras.

The organisation's vice-president Tawhidul Haque Liton, joint secretary-general M Monirul Haque, publicity secretary Mahmudul Hasan Rasel, and central leader Mohammad Mahsin were present at the event.

Rahila Anjum Khushbu, Ayesha Khatun, and Pannu Akter, spoke at the programme on behalf of the families of road accident victims.