Increasing road accidents a setback for progress

Road accidents claim nine to 20 lives every day in the country but the government has no updated figures to address the situation.

A total of 3,079 people were killed in road crashes in the past one year, says a report compiled by Prothom Alo.

Statistics produced by several private organisations show the number of the victims of road accidents increased recently, compared to the figures shown in official reports.

The government has fixed a target of reducing deaths in road accidents to half from the current level in line with the UN objectives, said Moazzem Hossain, director of road accident research institute at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

It's not clear how such goal will be attained when there is no accurate figure of deaths from road accidents, he pointed out.

A total of 7,397 people lost lives in road accidents, meaning 20 such death per day, in 2017, according to Bangladesh Passengers’ Welfare Association. Nirapad Sarak Chai (We Demand Safe Road) put the figure at 5,645 or 15 deaths per day.

The Bangladesh Police is yet to publish the report on the number of victims of road accidents in the past year.

However, the police reports on the road crashes in the previous years show the average number of deaths in a range between 2,000 and 2,500.

Moazzem Hossain regretted that most of the persons who died of road accidents were younger ones and earning members of the families.

Unfortunately, such losses would be equal to 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. There is no scope to urgently address this as its a national loss in all respect, he added.

*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Nusrat Nowrin.