Dhaka road crashes claim 1,384 lives in six-and-a-half years: Report

At least 1,384 people have been killed and 2,488 others injured in road accidents across the capital over the past six and a half years, with pedestrians and motorcyclists accounting for the majority of fatalities, according to a report released on Saturday (August 1) by the Road Safety Foundation.

The report, which analysed road crashes in Dhaka between 2020 and July 2026, documented 1,849 traffic accidents during the period.

Of those killed, 1,034 were men, 219 were women and 131 were children.

Pedestrians made up the largest share of victims, accounting for 42.77 percent of all fatalities, followed by motorcyclists (38.72 percent). The remaining 18.49 percent were drivers and passengers of buses, rickshaws, CNG-powered auto-rickshaws, human haulers and other vehicles.

The analysis found that roads in the capital become significantly more dangerous at night. Nearly 37.5 percent of all deaths occurred during nighttime hours, the highest proportion among all time periods.

Morning hours accounted for 18.64 percent of fatalities, followed by afternoon (14.8 percent), late afternoon (12.57 percent), dawn (10.26 percent) and evening (6.93 percent).

Heavy vehicles—including trucks, covered vans, pickup trucks, fuel tankers and garbage trucks—were involved in the largest share of fatal crashes, accounting for 33.25 percent of incidents analysed in the report.

Motorcycles were linked to 26 percent of crashes, while buses and minibuses accounted for 21.75 percent. CNG-powered auto-rickshaws, human haulers and similar vehicles made up 12.73 percent, while private cars, microbuses and SUVs accounted for the remaining 6.25 percent.

The Road Safety Foundation identified several key factors contributing to the capital's high crash rate, including high-speed operation of heavy vehicles at night, driver impatience caused by chronic traffic congestion, inadequate road infrastructure, the mixing of slow- and high-speed traffic, encroached footpaths and the lack of safe pedestrian crossing facilities.

The report also identified Jatrabari, Demra, Mohammadpur, Kuril World Road and Airport Road as some of Dhaka's most accident-prone corridors.

To improve road safety, the organisation urged authorities to accelerate the introduction of company-based bus services under the capital's route rationalisation programme.

It also called for stronger coordination among the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority (DTCA), the two city corporations and the traffic police to implement a unified road safety strategy.