8,543 killed in road accidents in 2024: BJKS

A total of 8,543 people were killed, and 12,608 others injured in 6,359 road accidents in 2024.

Md Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, Secretary General of the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, revealed this information at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters' Unity on Saturday (January 4). The organization compiled this annual report by monitoring news articles published in the media.

At the press conference, Mozammel Haque stated that the number of motorcycles in the country has surged from 1.5 million to 6 million in the past decade. In addition, 6 million new battery-operated rickshaws have hit the roads, contributing to the rise in small vehicles. He further pointed out that the government’s failure to enforce a ban on these vehicles has exacerbated road accidents and fatalities.

The Secretary General identified several causes of road accidents, including reckless speeding, dangerous overtaking, road construction defects, unfit vehicles, pedestrians' and passengers' negligence, driver incompetence, ignorance of traffic laws, reckless attitudes of transport owners, use of mobile phones or headsets while driving, driving under the influence of drugs, unprotected railway crossings, and poorly designed road dividers.

Professor Robayet Ferdous of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at Dhaka University, who also attended the press conference, criticized the interim government for its failure to take action to reduce road accidents in the transport sector. He described these accidents as "structural murders" and emphasized that to ensure safer roads, both the government and transport owners/workers must collaborate.

The press conference was attended by social development worker Abdullah Al Zahir Swapan, Vice President of the Passenger Welfare Association Tauhidul Haque, Joint Secretary Mohammad Monirul Haque, Publicity Secretary Mahmudul Hasan Russell, and Accident Monitoring Cell member Mohammad Ziaul Haque Chowdhury, among others.