Recent deadly road accidents that rocked the country
Road accidents have long plagued the country, even resulting in school and university students taking to the streets in a series of public protests in 2018.
The recent bus accident in Madaripur, which took 19 lives, shows that not much has changed.
Even the data is telling: According to the Road Safety Foundation, 7,713 people were killed and 12,615 injured in 6,829 road crashes last year.
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The figures were the highest since 2019.
The Road Safety Foundation identified 10 major reasons behind road accidents, including faulty vehicles, speeding, unskilled and unfit drivers, unfixed working hours for professional drivers, operation of slow-moving vehicles on highways, reckless bike driving, poor traffic management, and even extortion in the transport sector.
Although motorcycles have often been behind accidents, tragedies involving buses are also common.
The Madaripur incident is worrisome as the death tolls become menacing.
Even the 2018 students were sparked by the death of two students who were struck by a bus operated by an unlicensed driver who was racing to collect passengers.
Here we recount three of the deadliest in the last two years and the cause behind them.
The crossing
On 29 July 2022, 11 passengers – mostly students – were killed and seven injured when a train hit a microbus at Baratakia rail crossing in Mirsarai, Chattogram.
Chattogram-bound Mahanagar Prabhati Express from Dhaka hit the microbus – which was carrying students and teachers of a coaching centre – as soon as it got on the rail line at Baratakia.
Eyewitnesses said there was no gateman at the railway crossing when the accident occurred and the bamboo barrier at the crossing was not lowered.
Recklessness
On 29 May 2022, at least 10 people were killed and 20 injured when a bus hit a tree at Wazirpur upazila in Barishal, reported The Daily Star.
Some passengers forbade the driver not to overtake other buses while driving recklessly, but he ignored them.
Mad race
On 26 March 2021, a collision among three vehicles killed at least 17 people, including four women and two children, and injured eight others in Katakhali area in Rajshahi.
Police said that the collision took place among a Hanif Paribahan bus, a microbus and a CNG-run auto-rickshaw around 2:15pm, leaving eleven dead on the spot.
