Road crash: 224 killed in 12 days of August, says report

At least 224 people were killed and 866 injured in 203 road accidents in 12 days of this month (August) across country, a passengers' welfare platform said today.

Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity prepared the statistics on the basis of news reports of 41 national and regional newspapers and 11 online news portals from August 6 to August 17, Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, secretary general of the association, said at a press briefing held at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU).

Read more: Eid-time road crashes killed 259 people

In these 12-days, 13 people were killed and 15 were injured in train related incidents which include deaths after being run over by trains, he said.

Besides, 16 people died and 27 were injured in 24 accidents of waterways, he said adding that 59 people went missing in the accidents.

Among the deaths 52.21 per cent deaths are of pedestrians being run over, 21 per cent was caused in head-on collisions, 17 per cent happened as a result of drivers losing control over the wheels and 9 per cent are from other unknown causes.

Mozammel Haque said, reckless driving, speeding up and using motorbikes for long journeys are the main causes of such a huge number of accidents and deaths.

During this time last year, at least 259 people were killed and 960 injured in 237 road accidents in 13 days (August 16, 2018-August28, 2019) according to a report of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity.

Besides, 15 people were killed and seven others wounded in 19 incidents involving railways and four people were killed, 68 injured and eight remained missing in 14 accidents on waterways.