Road accidents claim 1,012 lives in 2 months

1,012 people were killed and 1,146 injured in 848 road accidents across the country in the first two months of the year, says a recent report.

According to the report released on Saturday by the Road Safety Foundation, 42.21% were motorbike accidents among those road mishaps. During the last two months, 358 motorbike accidents killed 403 people.

Besides, 202 pedestrians were killed in the accidents, which is 19.96% of the total deaths.146 drivers and assistants of vehicles were killed in those two months of January and February.

Besides, the report says, 35 people have been killed in 26 railway accidents during this period while 36 were killed in 12 waterway accidents.

143 women and 130 children were killed in the accidents that damaged 1,437 vehicles. The rest of the victims of the accidents were men.

According to the Road Safety Foundation, 353 (41.62%) of the accidents occurred on national highways, 295 (34.78%) on regional roads, 143 (16.86%) on rural roads, 46 (5.42%) on city roads and 11 (1.29%) occurred elsewhere.

The highest number of 231 casualties occurred in the Chattogram division. During the time, 27 people were killed in 21 accidents in the capital.

The Road Safety Foundation prepared the report based on information from eight national dailies, five online news portals and electronic media.

Executive Director of the foundation Saidur Rahman said, "Faulty vehicles, reckless driving, incompetence and physical and mental illness, unpaid wages and extra working hours, slow-speed vehicles on highways and the tendency to disobey traffic laws are the main causes behind road mishaps in the country.