The statistics of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority showed that the number of fatal road crash victims during this Eid-ul-Fitr holidays increased compared with last year.
At least 295 people were killed and 405 others injured in 254 road accidents in 15 days between April 4 and April 18 during the last Eid journeys, said a BRTA report revealed on Sunday.
In 2023, during the same Eid holidays, 239 were killed and 510 more injured in 253 road crashes in 15 days. 聽
At a press briefing, held at the BRTA headquarters in the capital, the authority chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder also termed the Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh report on road crash data as 鈥榥ot acceptable鈥� and 鈥榗onfusing鈥�.
PAWB, a non-government rights organisation, published a report on Saturday, showing that 407 people were killed and 1,398 others injured in 399 road crashes in 15 days during Eid holidays.
While reading out the report, BRTA chairman Nur Mohammad said that this year between April 4 and April 20 鈥� in 17 days 鈥� 320 were killed and 462 others injured in 286 road crashes.
Between April 4 and April 18, the highest number of deaths and road crashes took place in Dhaka division which were 鈥� 73 and 58 respectively while the highest number of injuries occurred in Chattogram division 鈥� 108.
According to the PWAB report, the number of deaths was higher than the BRTA report by over 100, which was not acceptable, said Nur Mohammad.
He mentioned that in case of vehicles, motorcycles were involved in the highest percentage of road crashes, which was 28.61 per cent, followed by buses in 18.83 per cent, trucks and covered vans in 12.96 per cent, others in 9.54 per cent, auto-rickshaws in 7.09 per cent, pick up vans in 4.65 per cent, cars and jeeps in 4.4 per cent, easy-bikes in 3.91 per cent, battery-run rickshaws in another 3.91 per cent, microbuses in 2.69 per cent, vans in 1.96 per cent, and tractors in 1.47 per cent crashes.
The highest percentage of deaths, 38.98 per cent, took place by motorcycle crashes, followed by 14.92 per cent in truck and covered van related crashes.
The authority mainly blamed negligence of the drivers for the road crashes and then reckless driving, negligence of the pedestrians, movement of illegal vehicles on highways, violation of traffic laws, illegal parking and absence of road divider at two opposite lanes鈥� roads.
Replying to a question of a reporter, the BRTA chairman said that all stakeholders, including the BRTA, were responsible for the fatal road crashes.
He mentioned that for violating traffic rules in the first 20 days of April, BRTA executive magistrates and district administration magistrates filed 2,113 cases, realised Tk 41.65 lakh fine and sent 51 vehicles to the dumping stations.
The highway police in the first 19 days of this month filed 8,592 cases for the violations.
Currently the BRTA is conducting mobile courts daily, following the recent spate of fatal crashes.
Senior BRTA officials were also present at the press briefing.