Death toll doubles in last 3 yrs

The number of road mishaps also increased alarmingly especially when over five million people commute during Eid festivals.

A total of 92 people died in road accidents during Eid-ul-Azha in 2003, while the number reached 190 in 2006, says a Buet research report.

Experts are of the view that due to excessive pressure of homebound passengers, plying of unfit and unlicensed vehicles to deal with them and driving by incompetent drivers are largely responsible for increased road accidents.

The research, conducted by Accident Research Centre (ARC) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), said a total of 704 passengers died in 624 road accidents from Eid-ul-Fitr 2003 to Eid-ul-Azha 2006. The number of injured during the period was 4369.

The report said most of the accidents took place at accident-prone areas known as black spots.

These are Chandina and Siddhirganj on Dhaka-Chittagong highway, Valuka on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway and several other spots on Dhaka-Aricha highway.

Besides head-on-collision and hitting from behind, the accidents also take place when drivers lose control over the steering to give side to other vehicles.

Though every year several steps are taken by the government to check road accidents, the result has been proved futile due to lack of adequate manpower, proper strategy and logistic support.

Director of Bangladesh Road Transport Authorities Humayun Rashid said, "Actually BRTA has no activities on safety issues. It conducts only a little informal awareness programme. But a concerted effort is needed to ensure passengers' safety."

Recently, the highway police have started working in this regard, he added.

The BRTA also lacks adequate mechanism to check fitness of the vehicles for which most of the accidents take place, Humayun said, adding that competency tests are taken at district level across the country.

However, a few bus companies have started programme to train their drivers to avoid road accidents, he said.

"As the number of vehicles increases during the Eid to meet the demand of growing number of passengers, traffic congestion also intensifies resulting reckless driving to reach the destination on time. This also leads to accident," said ARC Director Prof Mazharul Hoque.

It is essential to examine the fitness of vehicles and ensure their driving by skilled drivers, he said, adding that overloading of buses must be avoided.

Meanwhile, the home ministry on Thursday decided to tackle the situation and in order to avoid road accidents it has decided to remove roof racks from the buses so that no passenger could sit there.

Besides, additional pontoons would be arranged at ferry and launch terminals, and Rab, petrol police and mobile court would visit bus terminals to avoid unwanted incidents.