This year’s Eid-ul-Fitr holiday has seen a sharp rise in both the number of accidents and casualties during holidays, figures released by the Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association (BPWA) show.
During this period, at least 335 accidents on roads, railways and waterways across Bangladesh have left at least 400 people dead and 1,274 others injured, BPWA said in a report released in Dhaka on Friday.
The report is based on news published by various media between June 11 and June 23.
Of the total victims, 339 people were killed and 1,265 were injured in 277 road accidents. Eighteen accidents on the waterways left 25 people dead, 55 others missing and five others injured.
Also Read- Eid celebration haunted by deaths on highways
Thirty-nine people were crushed under the train wheels and two other died after falling off train roof.
Last year, 311 people killed and 862 others were injured in 240 accidents. A year before that, 200 people lost their lives and 764 were injured in 127 accidents.
BPWA Secretary General Mozammel Haque blamed poor infrastructure and reckless driving for the accidents.
In a statement, the BPWA noted eight reasons for the accidents during the Eid holidays this year. They include unfit vehicles, unskilled drivers, reckless driving, lack of monitoring and rundown condition of the roads.
It recommended training drivers, conducting regular road safety audits, making separate lanes for slow and fast vehicles on the highways, taking unfit vehicles off the roads, repairing roads, preventing three-wheelers from using highways, and constructing overpasses and underpasses on the national and regional highways for pedestrians.
