Road crash fatalities leap by 30 percent

After two road safety organisations, a government report now shows that the road crashes and fatalities saw a big leap last year, indicating that the road safety situation deteriorated further.

A total of 5,088 people were killed in 5,472 road crashes in 2021, 30 percent higher than the previous year, according to a police report.

According to experts, operations of a higher number of small vehicles, including motorcycles and illegal three-wheelers, mainly caused the rise in the number of accidents and fatalities.

They said the government's failure to develop public transport system and non-implementations of different steps including providing training to drivers to be blamed for the situation.

Concerns over road accidents and fatalities led to three students' movements for road safety since July 2018, with the latest one in November last year.

Although the authorities promised and undertake several steps to cut down road crashes, the recent data shows those initiatives remain futile as roads became riskier.

Road Safety Foundation, in a report published on January 8 this year, said 6,284 people were killed in 5,371 road crashes last year, which is 15.71 percent and 14.70 percent higher than the previous year respectively.

On the same day, Nirapad Sarak Chai, a pioneer of road safety movements in Bangladesh, published its annual accident report.

The organisation said 4,289 people were killed in 3,793 crashes last year, which is 12.87 percent and 17.36 percent higher than 2020 respectively.

Both organisations, which prepared the statistics following media reports, held lack of monitoring and enforcement of traffic laws, reckless driving, unfit vehicles, unhealthy competition among drivers, and the increasing number of motorcycles and three-wheelers as major reasons behind the rise.

30 PERCENT RISE

At least 5,088 people were killed in 5,472 road crashes in 2021, said police.

The number of deaths and road crashes were 3,918 and 4,198 respectively in 2020, meaning death and crashes rose to 29.86 percent and 30.34 percent last year.

Police collected the statistics on the basis of First Information Report (FIR) and General Dairy (GD), a police official told The Daily Star.

Motorcycles were involved in 1,358 accidents last year, which is 41.46 percent higher than in 2020.

Trucks and covered vans were involved in 1,831 crashes last year -- 39.56 percent higher than the previous year.

Buses and microbuses were involved in 1,379 accidents while other vehicles were involved in 3,051 accidents.

Although the police report did not separately mention the involvement of three-wheelers in crashes, many of the "other vehicles" were three-wheelers, the officials said, seeking anonymity.

Prof Moazzem Hossain, former director of Accident Research Institute of Buet, said, "We have raised alarm four-five years ago about the risk related to the rise in the number of bikes and three-wheelers, which has proved to be true now."

The poor public transport system is the reason behind the rise of these vehicles, he said.

The government should take immediate steps to develop public transport system, especially bus services in major cities, he said.

Otherwise, the number of bikes and three-wheelers would rise further which would ultimately cause more crashes, he said.