Among the casualties, 1,692 died in six divisional hospitals during treatment, says the report compiled by Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh.

Compared with 2017’s statistics, road accidents increased by 10.7 per cent while the number of deaths and injuries decreased by 2.4 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively in 2018.

At a press conference at National Press Club, PWAB secretary general Mozammel Haque Chowdhury read out the report prepared on the basis of reports in different national, regional dailies and online news portals of the country in 2018.

The report also reveals that in 2018 a total of 394 people were killed and 248 were injured in 370 railways accidents while 126 died, 234 were injured and 387 remained missing in 159 waterways accidents.

In five airways accidents, 55 people, including people from other countries, were killed and 32 were injured, as per the report.

It says that 1,252 transport workers, 880 students, 487 children, 231 law enforcers, 192 political activists, 106 teachers, 34 journalists and 33 physicians were victims of road accidents in 2018.

The same year, 41.53 per cent accidents involved hitting the victims, 29.7 per cent due to head-on collision, 16.1 per cent after vehicles fell into roadside ditches and two per cent involved deaths after scarves got tangled in wheels and collision between trains and other vehicles.

Of the accidents, 28.6 per cent involved trucks and covered vans, 25.3 per cent motorcycles, 18.9 per cent buses, 9.6 per cent auto-rickshaws, 7.9 per cent cars, jeeps and microbuses, 5.8 per cent Nasimon and Karimon and human haulers and 3.7 per cent battery-run rickshaws.

In June, the highest 615 people were killed in road accidents.
Reckless driving, overtaking, engineering faults on roads, movement of unfit vehicles, disobedience of traffic rules by road users, using head phones and mobile phones during driving were identified as major reasons behind road accidents.

Hossain Zillur Rahman, former adviser to a caretaker government and the convener of Safe Roads and Transport Alliance, blamed lack of accountability for procession of deaths and injuries on roads.

Former Bangladesh Road Transport Authority chairman Ayubur Rahman Khan alleged that the culture of following law was absent in the country.

‘In many cases we see that vehicles after hitting the victims do not stop,’ said Family United against Road Accidents chairman Ekram Ahmed, adding that transport workers continued this criminal activity with utter disregard for the law.

Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists vice-president Syed Ishtiaque Reza said that it would be a big challenge for the government to bring back order on roads which was an obstacle to establishing good governance. The press briefing was attended, among others, by Supreme Court advocate Jyotirmoy Barua, BFUJ president Kuddus Afrad and Nagorik Oikya chairman Sharifuzzaman Sharif.