The overall road safety situation has deteriorated across the country over the past one year while the chaos on roads has intensified.
People’s sufferings on roads persist due to frequent fatal road crashes, the movement of risky vehicles on roads and highways, reckless driving, the lack of training of drivers, and awareness among people.
Road safety experts said that there had been expectations that the interim government that assumed office in August past year would bring discipline in the road transport sector.
Instead of the expected improvement, they observed, disorder on roads has increased and thus the number of road accidents is also on rise.
The road safety campaigns, implemented by the authorities concerned in the past six financial years until FY24, also utterly failed amid a surge in fatal road accidents across the country.
Only a little more than 5 per cent road accident victims and their families were given compensation after the scheme was introduced two and a half years ago, show government data.
Against this background, the government and different non-government organisations working on road safety will observe National Road Safety Day today.
Chaos on the roads and highways across the country even worsen after the political changeover that happened amid the student-led uprising in July-August past year, leading to the ouster of the Awami League regime and the formation of an interim government with Professor Muhammad Yunus at the helm.
The latest addition to the people’s woes on roads is the numerous unauthorised battery-run rickshaws, besides the existing problems of reckless driving by bus drivers and motorcyclists, illegal parking, jaywalking, wrong-lane driving, over-speeding and the absence of traffic signals and signs.
Professor Shamsul Hoque, director of the Accident Research Institute at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, observed that the interim government was not focused on road safety and did not take any special initiative to improve road safety.
‘For example, the movement of battery-run rickshaws was being restricted on some roads before this government came into being but these vehicles are running now everywhere — even on flyovers uncontrollably,’ he said.
We see no improvement if we look at the road crash data, he added.
According to the Bangladesh Police, the number of people killed in road accidents was 2,635 in 2018, 4,138 in 2019, 3,918 in 2020, 5,088 in 2021, and 4,636 in 2022.
Since 2023, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority has started compiling the official road accident data.
According to the authority, 5,024 people were killed in 2023, 5,480 in 2024, and 4,150 till September this year.
Contradicting the BRTA data, Road Safety Foundation figures show that the number of people killed in road accidents was 5,211 in 2019, 5,431 in 2020, 6,284 in 2021, 7,723 in 2022, 6,524 in 2023, 7,294 in 2024, and 4,925 till July this year.
On the other hand, the World Health Organization estimated road traffic fatalities in Bangladesh at 21,316 in 2015, 24,944 in 2018, and 31,578 in 2021.
At least 1,16,726 people were killed and 1,65,021 others were injured in 67,890 road crashes across Bangladesh over the past 12 years, a report of the Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh revealed on Tuesday.
Association secretary general Md Mozammel Haque Chowdhury blamed the ‘wrong’ policies of the government for the deaths on the roads.
Professor Shamsul Haque also said that the interim government had a chance to change the existing bus operation system in the country as it was a non-political government, but it had missed the chance due to huge pressure of work.
The government should have reformed the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority to improve its services for checking fitness of vehicles and conducting driving tests for better road safety, he added.
Meanwhile, according to BRTA data, between January 2023 and September this year, 14,654 people were killed and 19,010 more were injured in road accidents.
From January 1, 2023, when the compensation scheme took off, to September this year families of only 1,527 deceased victims and 284 injured people — together 1,811 individuals only and 5.37 per cent of the total road crash victims — were paid compensation till now.
The victims and their families received Tk 80.63 crore only as compensation, while the compensation fund that was at the authority’s disposal was around Tk 270 crore as of July 27.
Among the families of the deceased victims, only 10.42 per cent and among the injured merely 1.49 per cent received compensation.
Between the FY2018-2019 and the FY2023-2024, the Road Safety Department under the BRTA jurisdiction spent Tk 18.13 crore on campaigns. The department was established in 2016.
The adviser for the road transport and bridges ministry, Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, told New Age that it would take more time to ensure roads safety.
He said that drivers on roads without training are the main problem in ensuring safety on roads.
To address this issue, they would impart drivers 60-hour training each before giving them licences, the adviser said. Currently the road transport authority provides a two-day similar training to the drivers.
Fouzul Kabir Khan blamed unfit vehicles on roads as another obstacle in ensuring road safety.
‘Currently, we are dumping 30 to 40 vehicles daily on average,’ he said, adding that the ministry had asked the BRTA top brass to expedite the process of providing compensation to the victims.
Mentioning his recent visit to the Dhaka-Sylhet National Highway, he said, ‘I have no magical power. I only just restored discipline. Now there is no traffic congestion.’
‘Currently we are implementing a project with the World Bank under which we will procure some ambulances for post-accident purposes,’ he said.
The adviser went on to say, ‘We hope that before February 2026 a visible improvement will occur while the number of road accidents will come down and the order on roads will improve.’
On April 18, 2023, the executive committee of the National Economic Council approved the World Bank- supported Bangladesh Road Safety Project at a cost of Tk 4,988 crore.
In June 2025, the interim government, which assumed office on August 8 in the past year, trimmed the project cost by Tk 1,576.5 crore.
The government is also working to enact a law to ensure road safety.
Courtesy: Newagebd
