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A total of 481 people were killed and 664 others injured in 513 road accidents across Bangladesh in August, according to a report by the Road Safety Foundation.
The report, signed by the organisation’s Executive Director Saidur Rahman and released on Monday, said 61 women and 58 children were among those killed.
Motorcycle accidents accounted for more than one-third of the fatalities, with 176 people, or 36.59 percent of the total deaths, killed in such crashes.
The Road Safety Foundation said it prepared the report based on information collected from nine national daily newspapers, 17 national and regional online news portals, electronic media and its own sources.
According to the report, 183 motorcycle accidents occurred during the month, accounting for 35.67 percent of all road accidents. At least 102 pedestrians were killed, representing 21.20 percent of the total fatalities, while 67 drivers and their assistants also lost their lives.
Regional roads recorded the highest number of accidents, with 217 crashes. National highways saw 163 accidents, while 62 occurred on rural roads and 71 on urban roads.
An analysis of the nature of the accidents showed that 195 crashes were caused by vehicles losing control. Another 126 resulted from head-on collisions, while 106 involved vehicles hitting or running over pedestrians. A further 78 accidents occurred when vehicles hit other vehicles from behind, while eight accidents were attributed to other causes.
Dhaka division recorded the highest number of accidents and fatalities, with 172 crashes claiming 144 lives. Barishal division recorded the lowest figures, with 15 accidents and 14 deaths.
Among individual districts, Bogura recorded the highest number of fatalities, with 37 deaths. In the capital, 48 road accidents killed 23 people and injured 54 others.
The report said an average of 15.51 people were killed in road accidents every day in August, compared with 13.41 deaths per day in July. This represents a 15.65 percent increase in daily road accident fatalities.
In addition, seven waterway accidents in August killed six people and injured nine others. During the same period, 34 railway accidents claimed 27 lives and injured 23 people.
The Road Safety Foundation identified excessive and reckless speeding, which often leads to drivers losing control of vehicles, as a major cause of accidents. Other factors included defective vehicles and roads, inadequate driving skills, drivers’ physical and mental health conditions, irregular working hours, the movement of slow-moving vehicles on highways, reckless motorcycle riding by young people and weak traffic management.
The organisation recommended reconstituting the Road Safety Council, reforming the management and institutional structures of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) and Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA).
It also called for mandatory use of modern safety technologies in motor vehicles and the removal of unfit and expired vehicles from the roads.