589 people lost lives in road accidents in March

In March this year, 589 people died in road accidents in the country. There were 458 road accidents and 647 people were injured in these incidents.

The information came from a report sent by Saidur Rahman, executive director of the Road Safety Foundation, on Monday (March 4) morning.

The highest number of deaths were in motorcycle accidents. 221 people were killed in 176 motorcycle accidents. During this time 19 people died in five boat accidents. 17 people were killed and eight others injured in 11 railway accidents.

The organization based its report on information from national dailies, online news portals and electronic media.

According to the report, an average of 19 people were killed every day in road accidents in March. In February, an average of 16.75 people were killed every day. As a result, the death toll in March has increased by 13.43 percent as compared to February. A total of 463 working people between the ages of 18 and 65 were killed in these accidents.

The main causes of road accidents that are mentioned in the report: Faulty vehicles; Reckless speed; Reckless mentality of drivers, incompetence and physical-mental illness; Salary and working hours not specified; Low-speed traffic on highways; Reckless motorcycling by young people; The tendency of the public not to know and disobey traffic laws; Poor traffic management; BRTA's lack of capacity and extortion in the public transport sector.

The foundation has also made 10 recommendations to prevent road accidents. The recommendations are: Increase in skilled driver development initiatives; Specify driver's salary and working hours; Increase the capacity of the BRTA; Ensuring uninterrupted application of traffic laws to transport owners-workers to passengers-pedestrians; Create separate service lanes for high-speed traffic on highways; Construction of road dividers on all highways in phases; Stop extortion on public transport; Reducing pressure on roads by reforming and expanding railways and waterways; To formulate and implement sustainable transport strategy and to implement Road Transport Act-2018 without any hindrance.