Week-long campaign on to curb road crashes

Increased number of long-route buses and reckless driving by exhausted drivers are some of the main reasons behind road accidents during Eid, said speakers yesterday at a campaign.
To accommodate the rush of home-bound people during Eid, owners deploy many extra buses, they said at the launching ceremony of the weeklong “Road Safety Campaign 2013” in the capital's Gabtoli bus terminal. Awareness building organisations Life and Arohan along with United Nations Information Centre launched it.
A Word Bank report says nearly 12,000 people die every year because of road accidents in Bangladesh. A significant number of these accidents occur during Eid.
Around 100 A and O-level students have been volunteering in the Gabtoli terminal to create awareness about road safety issues among drivers, supervisors, passengers and commuters.
Md Ekramul Habib, deputy commissioner of DMP (west division), among others, spoke.