Road crashes, mainly caused by speeding, killed 224 during Eid: Passenger group

Like previous years, many people have lost their lives to road traffic accidents amid rush of holidaymakers during Eid-ul-Azha this year, and a passenger group has found speeding as the main reason behind the mishaps.

In a report published in Dhaka on Sunday, Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association said at least 224 people were killed and 866 others injured in 203 road crashes in 12 days from Aug 6 to Aug 17.

More than half of the dead were pedestrians run over by vehicles, the association’s Secretary General Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said.

Over a third of the fatal accidents involved motorcycles, according to Mozammel  

The rate of road crashes dropped by 6.4 percent this year than the Eid-ul-Azha last year, according to the report.

Besides speeding, it has identified unfit vehicles, unskilled drivers, restless driving, illegal small vehicles on highways, lack of walkways and weak monitoring as the causes of the accidents.

The association recommended training of drivers, modernisation of licensing process, and preventing unfit vehicles from plying on the roads to stop crashes.

It also recommended updating the wage structure of transport workers and ensuring their rest during Eid.

Mozammel said the situation during this Eid for road, water and train travels was better than previous years, but passengers continued to suffer for a hike in ticket prices, traffic congestions, and train schedule collapse.

As many as 13 people were run over and killed by train in the 12 days during Eid while the death toll in mishaps on waterways was 16, with 59 others missing, according to the report.