Road crashes claim 413 lives in Nov: Report

As many as 413 lives were lost while 532 people were injured in 379 road accidents across the country in November last alone, according to a report.

Besides, at least nine people were killed and five went missing in seven waterway accidents while 13 people killed and two others injured in 11 train accidents during the period.

Road Safety Foundation (RSF), an organisation that campaigns for safer roads, on Saturday came up with the data in a new report on accidents on Bangladesh’s roads this year.

The report was prepared based on accident news carried by seven national dailies, five online news portals and electronic media.

As per the RSF report, 407people were killed in 346 road accidents in October last.

In November, motorcycle accidents turned out to be the deadliest one as those alone caused death of 184 people, which is 44.55 per cent of the total deaths.

The total number of motorcycle accidents was 158 during the last month, which is 41.68 percent of the total accidents.

According to the RSF findings, at least 96 pedestrians were killed in road accidents, which account for 23.24 percent of the total deaths.

Some 53 drivers and their assistants were also subjected to road fatalities and that is 12.83 percent of the total deaths.

The Dhaka division witnessed the highest number of accidents with 104 deaths from 83 accidents while Barishal experienced the lowest number of accident and casualty with 24 deaths from 22 accidents.

As a single district, Chattogram witnessed the highest number of accidents with 29 deaths from 21 crashes.

The RSF pointed out 10 major reasons behind the increasing number of road accidents. Those are using faulty vehicles, reckless driving, desperate attitude, incompetence and illnesses of drivers, unsettled wages and working hours, movement of low-speed vehicles on highways, reckless motorcycling by youths, the tendency of flouting traffic rules, poor traffic management, lack of efficiency of BRTA and extortion in the transport sector.

The RSF urged the authorities concerned take necessary initiatives to address the issues.UNB.

MS/