At least 57 children among 487 people were killed in 559 road accidents across Bangladesh in January this year, according to a report released by the Road Safety Foundation.
The crashes also left 1,194 people injured during the month.
Among the deceased were 68 women, the report said.
Motorcycle crashes accounted for a significant share of the deaths, with 196 people killed in 208 incidents, representing 40.24% of the total fatalities and 37.20% of all accidents.
Pedestrians made up 27.10% of the deaths, with 132 people killed, while 67 drivers and helpers died, accounting for 13.75%.
During the same period, four waterway accidents killed six people and injured seven others, while 41 railway track accidents left 32 dead and 17 injured.
The report was prepared based on information from nine national dailies, seven online news portals, electronic media reports and the foundation’s own data.
Motorcycle riders and passengers were the worst affected, followed by passengers of three-wheelers such as easy bikes, CNG-run auto-rickshaws and auto-vans, who accounted for 77 deaths or 15.81%.
Bus passengers died in 21 cases, while 28 deaths involved truck, covered van, pickup and tractor occupants.
Nine people were killed in private car, microbus, ambulance and jeep crashes, and 13 died while travelling in locally made vehicles such as nosimon and votvoti.
Besides, 11 cyclists were also killed.
Road type and accident pattern
The analysis showed that 27.90% of the crashes occurred on national highways, 37.03% on regional roads, 15.20%t on rural roads and 18.42% on city streets.
The remaining accidents took place in other locations.
In terms of accident type, 37.38% were caused by loss of control, 24.15% by head-on collisions, 24.50% by vehicles hitting pedestrians and 12.88% by rear-end collisions.
Heavy vehicles, including trucks, covered vans and tankers, were involved in 28.58% of the crashes, followed by motorcycles at 24.51% and three-wheelers at 18.53%.
Passenger buses accounted for 12.20% of the incidents.
Division-wise data showed Dhaka Division recorded the highest number of accidents and fatalities, with 143 crashes killing 119 people.
Sylhet Division had the lowest toll, with 18 deaths from 24 accidents.
In the capital Dhaka, 26 accidents killed 18 people and injured 41 others.
Based on media reports, the victims included police members, teachers, doctors, journalists, lawyers, bank and insurance employees, NGO workers, political activists, businesspeople, sales representatives, garment and construction workers, people with disabilities and 57 students.
The foundation identified defective vehicles and roads, overspeeding, reckless and unfit driving, lack of fixed wages and working hours for drivers, slow-moving vehicles on highways, risky motorcycle riding by youths, poor knowledge and enforcement of traffic laws, weak traffic management, capacity constraints at Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, and extortion in the public transport sector as the main causes of road accidents.
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