Coronavirus: 10 people killed each day in road accidents amid shutdown
DOT Desk: [2] Despite reduced traffic on roads due to the government enforced shutdown, 10 people on average are being killed every day in Bangladesh, reports Dhaka Tribune.
[3] According to Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, which compiles statistics on road crashes based on newspaper reports, at least 150 people were killed in the first 15 days of April taking the average to 10 deaths per day. Data compiled by road safety campaigner Nirapad Sarak Chai found 340 people were killed across Bangladesh in April last year, which averages to 11 people a day.
[4] It shows that even if thousands of vehicles remain off the road because of government enforced public holiday since March 26, it did not have much impact on road fatalities. However, most of the accidents this month involved motorcycles, while some involved trucks carrying inter-district goods.
[5] On April 16, a member of Bangladesh Army was killed and 21 others were injured in a road accident near Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in Dhaka. On April 9, a rider and a pillion were killed while another pillion was injured after a covered van hit the motorcycle carrying the three at Chandina in Comilla under Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. [6] On April 6, two readymade garment workers were killed after being run over by a truck in Mymensingh’s Bhaluka upazila. [7] The Bangladesh Government on March 26 suspended public transport services in light of the coronavirus situation in the country. With the travel ban, all types of commercial vehicles excluding trucks and covered vans carrying food, medicines, emergency services, fuel, and perishable goods were taken off the roads.
[8] The country’s Road Transport Act considers any motorized vehicle transporting paying customers as public transport.
[9] Therefore, all commercial passenger vehicles such as buses, taxis, auto-rickshaws, and other human haulers (such as Nasimon, Korimon) fall under the purview of the
restriction.
Despite minimized number of vehicles on the roads, road safety campaigners said the number of accidents involving motorcycles and trucks is still high.
In March this year, 525 people were killed and 1019 were injured in 467 road accidents while in February, at least 534 people were killed and 1169 were injured in 504 road accidents, according to Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association.
At least 445 people were killed and 834 injured in 340 road accidents in January this year, it said.
Data compiled by Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) said, there were 4,394,000 registered vehicles in Bangladesh as of February.