A total of 490 accidents across road, rail, and waterways in August led to 534 fatalities and 989 injuries, according to the Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association.
The organisation reported that road accidents accounted for the highest number of deaths.
In 467 incidents, 476 people lost their lives, while 985 were injured during the same period.
Additionally, railways witnessed 10 accidents resulting in 8 deaths and 2 injuries, while 13 incidents on waterways claimed 50 lives, injured 2, and left 9 individuals missing.
These statistics were disclosed in a press release signed by Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association General Secretary Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, based on information from national and local dailies and online news portals, published on Thursday (19 September).
The report highlighted that motorbike accidents were the most fatal, with 206 people killed and 201 injured in 193 incidents. These figures represent 41.32% of all accidents, 43.27% of fatalities, and 20.40% of injuries.
The press release noted that in August, Dhaka Division recorded the highest number of road accidents, while Barisal Division saw the fewest.
Dhaka experienced 117 road accidents, resulting in 121 deaths and 261 injuries.
In contrast, Barisal recorded 27 road accidents, leading to 26 deaths and 93 injuries.
Among the accident victims were 1 law enforcement officer, 90 drivers, 75 pedestrians, 39 transport workers, 54 students, 1 teacher, 66 women, 49 children, 3 journalists, 1 lawyer, and 12 political activists.
Of these, 1 police officer, 76 drivers, 74 pedestrians, 55 women, 43 children, 33 students, 17 transport workers, 1 teacher, 1 journalist, 1 lawyer, and 11 political activists were killed.
A total of 745 vehicles were involved in road accidents.
The breakdown revealed that motorbikes made up 31.67% of the total, followed by trucks, pick-ups, covered vans, and lorries at 21.20%, buses at 10.33%, battery-powered rickshaws and easy bikes at 14.36%, CNG-powered auto-rickshaws at 8.45%, nasimon-karimon-tractor-legunas at 7.78%, and cars, jeeps, and microbuses at 6.17%.
The accidents comprised 41.54% instances of vehicles running over victims, 33.19% head-on collisions, 22.50% of vehicles losing control and falling into ditches, 2.56% for various other reasons, 0.42% of collisions with trains, and 0.21% due to scarves being caught in wheels.
An analysis of the accidents revealed that 33.83% occurred on national highways, 20.77% on regional highways, and 39.18% on feeder roads. Additionally, 4.49% of all accidents took place within the Dhaka metropolitan area, 1.28% in the Chattogram metropolitan area, and 0.42% at railway crossings.
