367 killed in 358 road accidents in 15 days of Eid vacation

Before and after this year's Eid-ul-Fitr, 367 people were killed and more than 1500 were injured in 358 road accidents in 15 days between April 4 and April 18, according to a report by the Road Safety Foundation released on Wednesday (April 24).

The report has been prepared based on information of its own as well as collected from national dailies, online news portals and electronic media.

The report mentions that 63 women and 74 children were killed in those road accidents.

The report also said that 454 people were admitted to Dhaka's National Orthopedic Hospital (Pangu Hospital) after being injured in road accidents in the three days of Eid. Most of them were victims of motorcycle accidents.

Some 156 people were killed in 183 motorcycle accidents in these 15 days, which is 42.50 percent of the total number of deaths.

Also, 68 pedestrians were killed in the accidents, which is 18.52 percent of the total fatalities and 41 vehicle drivers and assistants were killed which is 11.17 percent of the deaths.

During this time, seven people were killed and eight injured in three accidents on waterways while 19 were killed and 17 injured in 14 railway accidents.

Among the victims of those accidents, motorcyclists and motorcycle passengers were 156, bus passengers 18, truck-pickup-covered van-tractor riders 26, private car-microbus-pajero-jeep riders 28, three-wheeler riders 58, locally-made Nasimon passengers nine, and four were bicycle-pedal rickshaw riders.

Of the accidents, 129 occurred on national highways, 143 on regional roads, 48 on rural roads and 38 on city roads.

The Road Safety Foundation said the number of road accidents and fatalities have increased during Eid journey this year compared to last year. Last year, 285 people lost their lives in 240 accidents during Eid-ul-Fitr.

As such, accidents have increased by 39.20 percent and fatalities have increased by 20.19 percent.