524 died in road accidents in June

During the month of June, 524 people lost their lives in 467 road accidents across Bangladesh, according to a report of the Road Safety Foundation.

Another 821 people were injured in the accidents that took place in June.

Among all the divisions Dhaka saw the highest number of deaths and accidents, with 117 casualties in 139 accidents.

Among the deceased 68 were women and 73 were children. Of the total deaths, 78 were students of different educational institutions in the country.

Also, 204 people were killed in 197 motorcycle accidents, which is 38.93% of the total deaths.

One hundred and seven pedestrians were killed in accidents, which is 20.41% of the total deaths. On the otherhand, 86 drivers and assistants of vehicles were killed, which is 16.41% of all deaths.

During the same period nine people were killed in eight boat accidents. At least 16 people have been killed and four others injured in 18 railway accidents.

The report states that the reasons behind road accidents include reckless speeding, driver incompetence and physical and mental illness; no fixed payment or work hours, low-speed vehicles on highways; reckless motorcycling by young people; lack of awareness about traffic laws, lack of BRTA capacity, poor traffic management; and extortion in the public transport sector.

The study recommends taking up initiatives to increase skilled drivers, fixing work hours and payment, increasing BRTA's capacity, ensuring uninterrupted application of traffic laws by transport owners, workers, passengers and pedestrians; introducing separate lanes (service lanes) for low speed vehicles on the highway, constructing road dividers on all highways in phases, stopping extortion on public transport, reviving railways and waterways, and implementing "Road Transport Act-2018".

The Road Safety Foundation formed the report by compiling information from nine national dailies and seven online news portals and electronic media.