July sees highest 739 deaths in road accidents in a year

During the month of July, 739 people lost their lives in 632 road accidents across Bangladesh, according to a report of the Road Safety Foundation.

This is the highest this year as a total of 4,166 people died in road accidents between January and July of this year.

Another 2,042 people were injured in the accidents that took place in July.

In Dhaka there were 29 casualties and 58 injuries in 41 accidents.

Among the deceased 105 were women and 109 were children. Of the total deaths, 104 were students of different educational institutions in the country.

Despite the government restriction on motorcycle movement during the Eid holidays 251 people or 33.96% of the total deaths in July were in motorcycle accidents.

During the same period 18 people were killed in boat accidents. At least 41 people have been killed in 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 Road Safety Foundation formed the report by compiling information from nine national dailies and seven online news portals and electronic media.