418 people died on roads last month

At least 418 people were killed and 856 were injured in 443 road accidents across the country last month, said the Road Safety Foundation yesterday.

Among the deceased, 72 were women, 53 were children, and 47 were students, according to a report from the organisation.

Motorcycles were involved in 131 of the crashes, leaving 109 people dead, which accounts for 26.08 percent of the total deaths recorded in July.

During the same period, 92 pedestrians were killed in accidents, accounting for 22 percent of all fatalities.

The report also recorded four waterway accidents that claimed six lives. In addition, 18 people died and seven were injured in 21 rail-related accidents.

The foundation prepared the report based on information from nine national dailies, seven online news portals, various electronic media, and its own monitoring.

Of the road crashes, 81 (18.28 percent) were head-on collisions, 216 (48.75 percent) occurred when vehicles lost control and fell into ditches, 94 (21.21 percent) involved pedestrians being hit or run over, 44 (9.93 percent) were rear-end collisions, and the rest were caused by other reasons.

A total of 609 vehicles were involved in the crashes, which included 114 buses, 108 trucks, 17 private cars, 131 motorcycles, 84 three-wheelers, and 25 locally made vehicles, such as Nasimon, Vatvoti, and Mahindra.

The foundation identified 11 causes behind the road crashes, including faulty vehicles, defective roads, reckless driving, drivers' negligence, as well as drivers' physical or mental health issues.

Other reasons included the movement of slow vehicles on highways, reckless motorcycle riding by young people, lack of awareness about traffic laws among road users, and weak traffic management, it said.

The foundation made 10 recommendations to reduce accidents and deaths. These include producing skilled drivers, fixing drivers' salaries and working hours, enhancing the capacity of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, properly enforcing traffic laws, removing slow-moving vehicles from highways, building separate service roads for them, and fully implementing the Road Transport Act-2018.