Road accidents killed 679 in April 

Road accidents in April 2024 resulted in 679 deaths and 934 injured, resulting in an estimated Tk2019.11 crore in human resource losses, according to the Road Safety Foundation(RSF).

Data from Dhaka's National Orthopaedic Hospital and other hospitals claim that the death figure is more than 2,000.

Motorcycles held the most danger with 259 deaths out of 316 accidents recorded, which is 38% of the total death numbers followed by three-wheelers such as CNGs, autorickshaws, easy bikes, and autovans with 131(19.3%) deaths. Trucks and private vehicles followed with 65 (9.6%) and 45 (6.6%) deaths respectively.

The total number of casualties - meaning both the dead and injured - was 1,613, of which 93 were women and 108 were children.

The report also revealed that the most dangerous roads in Bangladesh during April were national highways and regional roads, where 235 (34.97%) and 266 (39.58%) deaths occurred. City roads saw 79 (11.75%) fatalities with the remaining 87 (12.94%) occurring on rural roads.

Overall 39% of the accidents happened when a driver lost control of their vehicle, while 25.9% came from head-on collisions. The remaining categories are pedestrians being struck, with 17.9%, Rear-ending other vehicles at 14.4% and the remainder being from assorted other causes.

Trucks and motorbikes were the most common vehicles involved in accidents at 24.3% and 29.9% of total accidents respectively.

According to the report, the most dangerous time of the day is the late morning when 24.9% of the accidents occurred, followed closely by 23.95% at night and 20.5% during noon.

Chittagong had the largest number of accidents at 132(19.6%) and 17.4% of the fatalities, however, Dhaka suffered a 19% accident rate but had an alarming 26.2% of the total fatalities.