Only 566 road crash victims and their families in got the compensations after the introduction of the scheme about two years ago, shows government data.
According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, between January 2023 and October 6 this year, total 9,216 people were killed and 12,689 more were injured in road crashes.
From January 1, 2023, when the compensation scheme took off, to October 6 this year only 1,940 applications were submitted to the trustee board against total 21,905 deaths and injuries.
After investigation, families of only 483 deceased victims and 83 injured people鈥� only 2.58 per cent of the total road crash victims鈥攚ere given compensation till now.聽
The victims and their families got Tk 25.29 crore as compensation till now, while the compensation fund had Tk 220.98 crore till this October 3.
The government data significantly differs from that produced by different international and local non-governmental organisations as experts maintain that many road crash incidents remain unreported.聽聽
Four years after the enactment of the Road Transport Act 2018, the government, on December 27, 2022, issued a circular finalising the Road Transport Rules 2022, and same day a trustee board was formed to operate a financial assistance fund to give compensation to the injured and the heirs of the deceased victims of road crashes.
In January 2023, the submission of applications for compensation started, and from October 19 same year compensation-cheque distribution activities began.
According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, till October 6 this year 1,940 applications were submitted to the trustee board and 1,835 were sent to the permanent investigation committees for probe.
Till this October 6, the committees submitted reports on 654 applications and Tk 25.29 crore was given as compensation to 566 victims and their families.
Contradicting the BRTA, statistics published by the Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh, however, show that between January 2023 and September this year, a total of 12,873 people were killed and 22,805 others were injured in road crashes.
The Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh is a non-governmental body that prepares road crash statistics from media reports.
The World Health Organisation estimated road traffic fatalities in Bangladesh at聽 21,316 in 2015, 24,944 in 2018, and 31,578 in 2021.
The Bangladesh Police data, however, showed 2,376 deaths in 2015, 2,635 deaths in 2018, and 5,084 deaths in 2021.
BRTA director for audit and law department Mohammad Kamrul Islam Chowdhury told 抖阴精品 that most people are yet to know about the compensation scheme.
They were now focusing on an awareness campaign on the board and fund, he continued.聽
鈥楢 plan is also under consideration to increase the time for applying for compensations after any road accident which is now 30 days,鈥� he said, mentioning that from this September applications were being received at the BRTA district offices, which were earlier received at the BRTA headquarters only.
BRTA chairman Md Yeasin is also the trustee board chairman.
On October 17, he told 抖阴精品 that they were trying to expedite the activities of the board to distribute more compensation.聽
The compensation packages under the law are鈥攖he family of a road fatality victim will get a maximum of Tk 5 lakh, a person who lost any vital body part or is severely injured in road crash will get maximum Tk 3 lakh, and a person who is severely injured in road crash with the chance of returning to normal life by treatment will get maximum Tk 1 lakh.
The 2018 law also stipulates that within 30 days of an accident, victim鈥檚 families and survivors will be able to apply to the trustee board for compensation.
The Road Transport Act 2018 was enacted following the death of two students on July 29, 2018, reportedly caused by reckless driving.
For funding the financial assistance fund, the rules mentioned five sources with fixed token subscriptions鈥攁nnual Tk 1,500 for bus, truck, covered van and prime mover, Tk 750 for minibus, mini truck and pickup van, Tk 500 for car, jeep and microbus and Tk 300 for three-wheeler, and other vehicles and one-time Tk 1,000 for motorcycles.
