At least 608 people were killed and 1,100 more injured in 621 road accidents in the country in January, said a Road Safety Foundation report published on Tuesday.
Most of the deaths occurred in accidents involving motorcycles, the report also said, mentioning that 43.42 per cent or 264 people died in 43.63 per cent or 271 motorcycle related accidents.
Train was involved in the next highest number of deaths鈥�26 people鈥攚ith seven more injured in 22 accidents.
Six people were killed and two more were injured in four waterways accidents.
The report was prepared based on reports published in nine national dailies, seven online news portals, different electronic media and own sources.
Of those killed, 143 were pedestrians, 90 were passengers, drivers and their assistants of three-wheelers, 73 were drivers and their assistants of differnet motor vehicles, 34 were transport workers and illegal passengers of trucks, pickup vans, tractors and trolleys, 28 were bus passengers, 19 were passengers and drivers of cars, microbuses, jeeps and ambulances, 18 were passengers and transport workers of locally modified vehicles such as nasimon, karimon, bhatbhati, tomtom and mahindra, and 12 were passengers and pullers of rrickshaws, rickshaw vans and bicycles.
Of those killed in January, 84 were children, 74 were students, 27 were businesspeople, 26 sales representatives of medicine and differet products, 14 employees of non-governmental organisations, and 13 political leaders and activists.
According to the report, the highest percentage, 42.67 per cent of road accidents took place on national highways followed by 34.46 per cent on regional highways, 15.45 per cent on rural roads, 6.76 per cent on the urban roads and 0.64 per cent on other roads.
Of the accidents, the highest 41.54 per cent were caused as the drivers lost control on the vehicles, followed by 22.7 per cent in which vehicles hit pedestrians, 21.41 per cent by head-on collisions, 12.07 per cent when vehicles were hit by other vehicles, and 2.25 per cent by other reasons.
The highest 31.07 per cent accidents took place in the morning, while 19.16 per cent at night, 17.23 per cent about noon, 15.45 per cent in the afternoon, 9.98 per cent in the evening, and 7.08 per cent at dawn.
In Dhaka division, the highest number of road accidents, 172, caused the highest number of deaths, 161, while the lowest number of accidents occurred in the Barishal division, 31, killing 30 people.
In the capital 23 people were killed and 31 more were injured in 29 crahses.
As reasons for road accidents, the report mostly identified movement of unfit vehciles, reckless driving, and overspeeding, absence of fixed salaries for the drivers, and poor traffic management. It also demanded robust monitoring of vehicular movement involving modern technology, motivational training for drivers and awareness programmes for all road users to check road accidents, said a press release.
