Motorcycles were the leading cause of road fatalities in Bangladesh in January, claiming 264 lives, which accounts for 43.42% of the total fatalities.
Road Safety Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, compiled the data using reports from nine national newspapers, seven online news portals, and various electronic media outlets, as stated in a press release on Tuesday.
The study revealed that 608 people lost their lives and 1,100 others were injured in 621 road accidents across the country during January.
Among the other victims, 28 (4.6 percent) died in accident involving bus, 34 (5.59 percent) died in accident involving trucks, covered vans, pickups; 19 (3.12 percent) in accident involving private cars, microbuses, ambulances, jeeps, 90 (14.80 percent) in three-wheelers like CNG, easybikes, and autorickshaws accidents, 18 (2.96 percent) locally-made vehicles nasiman-kariman accidents, and 12 (1.97 percent) in bicycles-paddle rickshaws and rickshaw vans accidents.
According to the Foundation's analysis, 214 (34.46 percent) accidents occurred on national highways, 265 (42.67 percent) on regional roads, 96 (15.45 percent) on rural roads, 42 (6.76 percent) on urban roads, and 4 (0.64 percent) in other places.
The report reveals that in January, Dhaka division saw the highest number of accidents with 172 reported accidents resulting in 161 fatalities. Barishal division recorded the lowest number of accidents with just 31, while the division had also the lowest number of fatalities.
At least 23 people were killed and 31 were injured in 28 accidents in the capital city Dhaka, Road Safety Foundation data shows.
A total of 143 pedestrians were killed in road crashes in the country which is 23.51 percent of the total deceased.
Moreover, twenty-six people were killed and seven were injured in accidents on rail tracts in the country during the same period.
According to the Road Safety Foundation, on an average around 20 people were killed in road accidents across the country every day in January.
The organisation identified several factors contributing to the high number of casualties on the country's roads, including, reckless driving, slow-moving vehicles on highways, absence of fixed pay and working hours for drivers, inadequate traffic management, desperate motorbike riding by youths, lack of knowledge among people about the traffic rules, fragile traffic management, limited capacity of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), and prevalence of extortion within the public transport sector.
