Road accidents on the rise
50 killed on Dhaka-Chittagong highway in one month
Most drivers try to overtake each other on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, leading to a greater risk of accident. The picture was taken on Sunday from the Bhatiary area in Sitakunda . Fire Service men, (inset), try to rescue the victims from the wreckage of a bus that collided with a covered van at Barabkunda of Sitakunda on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway on July 17. Photo: Zobaer Hossain Sikder
Road accidents in the recent months marked a sharp rise in Chittagong, mainly on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, due to reckless driving by the unskilled drivers, lack of road dividers, unfit vehicles and absence of measures against the violators of traffic rules. Some 50 people were killed in separate road accidents on Dhaka-Chittagong highway in July while 182 were killed and 268 injured, 182 of them critically, in 206 accidents here in one year until May this year, sources said. A total of 203 road accidents took place in Chittagong leaving 138 dead and 164 injured, 136 critically in 2006-2007, said Motor Vehicle Inspector Shamsul Kabir of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA). The number might be higher since many of the accidents and casualties remain unreported to BRTA, he said. At least 20 people were killed and 24 others injured in a collision between two passenger buses on Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Iliotganj of Daudkandi in Comilla under Chittagong division on July 7. One of the buses fell into a roadside ditch resulting in the high death toll, sources said. A head-on collision between a passenger bus and a covered van left eight people killed and 20 others injured at Barabkunda under Sitakunda upazila in the district on July 17. Sources said the accident occurred due to reckless driving by the bus driver despite repeated warning of the passengers. Eleven people were killed and 25 others injured in two accidents on the same Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Comilla on the very next day (July 18). BRTA sources said over 21,000 unfit vehicles have been plying the roads contributing frequently to the loss of invaluable lives in road accidents. A total of 38,497 fitness and road tax certificates were renewed last year (2007) as against over 60,000 heavy and light vehicles including bus, truck, pick-up, microbus, private car, motorbike and tempo plying the city and district roads. Assistant Commissioner of traffic department of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Mohammad Mizanur Rahman said reckless driving by the unskilled drivers and tendency of overtaking are the main causes behind the road accidents on the highway. Besides, inadequate road dividers and speed-breakers are contributing a lot to the road accidents, Mizan said, adding that they have been taking orientation classes for the drivers on every Sunday at Badamtali Office in the port city. He said they are continuing drives against the unfit vehicles and unskilled drivers and filing cases and realising fines from them in this regard. BRTA Assistant Director Sheikh Mohammad Ataullah Chowdhury said the accidents occurred as the drivers are not well-trained and lack in proper sense of driving.
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