Govt must make greater efforts to ensure road safety

Regular deaths on the highways of Bangladesh have become quite a "normal" thing.

Over 80 percent of the 7,713 road crash victims last year were aged between 18 and 65 years, the most productive segment of the population, Road Safety Foundation said yesterday.

A sharp and unregulated growth of vehicles, especially motorcycles and three-wheelers, over the last few years has resulted in a spike in the numbers of road crashes and casualties.

At least 223 people die in accidents that took place on road, rail and waterways across the country in 12 days of Eid-ul-Azha journey.

Eleven people, including seven women, were killed in road accidents in Thakurgaon and Savar yesterday.

At least eight people including four women are killed and twenty others injured in a tragic road accident on Thakurgaon-Dhaka highway.

Sixteen people are killed and 25 others injured in separate road accidents in Sirajganj, Sunamganj and Natore districts.

Two children sisters are killed and around 15 others injured when a bus plunges into a roadside ditch at Sylhet-Tamabil highway in Jaintiapur upazila of Sylhet.

Student demonstrators yesterday said they would resume their peaceful protest for safe roads on Sunday to keep pressure on the authorities to implement their promises.

Two people are killed and eight others injured as a picnic bus hit a stationery truck on Khulna-Bagerhat highway near Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali’s shrine in Bagerhat Sadar upazila early today.

At least 24,954 people were killed in road crashes in the country in 2016, according to a World Health Organisation report.

At least 11 people were killed and several others injured in eight road accidents across the country in 24 hours since Monday night.

It has been exactly a month since two college students were squashed to death by a bus on the Airport Road that sparked an unprecedented movement by students to demand road safety.

Violation of rules by transport operators and drivers remains the main cause of fatalities and injuries on roads across the country.

Deaths on roads continued as 11 people were killed and 42 others injured in road crashes in different parts of the country yesterday.

In the wake of scores of deaths on roads, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday issued directives, including drive-time limitations on drivers of long-route vehicles, to prevent accidents and casualties.