The road safety campaigns implemented by the authorities concerned in the past six financial years until FY24 utterly failed amid a surge in fatal road accidents in the country.
Between the FY 2018-2019 and the FY 2023-2024, the road safety department under the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority spent Tk聽18.13 crore on the campaigns. The department was established in 2016.
Road safety experts and campaigners observed that there was no improvement in the road safety situation in Bangladesh as indicated by unabated road accidents despite the fact that public money was spent on the safety campaigns.
They urged the authorities to spend money for taking effective measures like ensuring surveillance on the driving competency tests and the vehicle鈥檚 fitness checking process.
The authorities, however, did not conduct any assessment to find out the impact of the road safety campaigns on the safety situation.
Sitangshu Shekhar Biswas, director (road safety) at the BRTA, said that their works were mainly campaign, training and publication-based and focused on all road users.
Under the department, they mainly make people aware of road safety through different initiatives, including providing drivers with a two-day orientation training after passing the driving tests by them, conducting road safety campaigns, including special programmes at different educational institutions, bus terminals and important road crossings, and publishing road safety-related publications and advertisements in national dailies.
鈥榃e do not engage any third party to perform our activities,鈥� Sitangshu said, mentioning that through the Department of Films and Publications, they had created some contents, including some videos regarding road safety awareness.
Sitangshu, who joined the department at the end of July, said that as far he knew, no assessment had been done to find out the impact of these campaigns.
As per data, the department spent Tk聽2,20,30,000 in FY19, Tk聽2,72,63,000 in FY20, Tk聽3,04,34,100 in FY21, Tk聽3,06,39,000 in FY22, Tk聽3,34,08,000 in FY23 and Tk聽3,74,93,000 in FY24.
Professor Shamsul Hoque, director of the Accident Research Institute at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, observed that the awareness campaigns did not work at all.
鈥業n other countries, people would have asked what happened to their money and what the yields were,鈥� he said, alleging that in Bangladesh the entire system had been established without any justification.
Shamsul said that the BRTA was spending public money in unaccountable ways, which had no effectiveness, and there was no reduction in fatal road accidents and disorder on roads.
鈥楾he root causes of this failure should be brought under scrutiny,鈥� he said.
Shamsul suggested that the most effective way to use Tk聽18 crore could be installing CCTV inside the driving competency and vehicle鈥檚 fitness checking spaces, saying that all faults in the road transport sector were rooted in those areas.
He also alleged that the driving instructors were now giving licences without checking anything and that was also the fact in the case of fitness checking of vehicles.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽
According to the Bangladesh Police, the number of people killed in road accidents was 2,635 in 2018, 2,635 in 2019, 3,918 in 2020, 5,088 in 2021, and 4,636 in 2022.
Since 2023, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority has started compiling the official road accident data. According to the authority, 5,024 people were killed in 2023, 5,480 in 2024 and 3,323 till July this year.
Contradicting the BRTA data, Road Safety Foundation figures show that the number of people killed in road accidents was 5,211 in 2019, 5,431 in 2020, 6,284 in 2021, 7,723 in 2022, 6,524 in 2023, 7,294 in 2024 and 4,080 till July this year.
As per the Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh, the number of people killed in road accidents was 7,221 in 2018. The association and the foundation are two non-governmental bodies that prepare road accidents statistics from media reports.
The World Health Organisation estimated that the road traffic fatalities in Bangladesh at 21,316 in 2015, at 24,944 in 2018, and at 31,578 in 2021.
Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh secretary general Md Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury said that the road safety campaigns were not working as these were mainly targeting the drivers.
鈥楾he drivers are not very educated, so they cannot understand the technical issues always,鈥� he observed.
He said that following the demands of road safety campaigners, including them, the road safety department was established.
鈥楾he department should identify the major causes of the fatal road accidents and then take remedial steps,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥榦therwise by only awareness campaign, the road accidents will not decrease.鈥�
The adviser for the road transport and bridges ministry, Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, told 抖阴精品 recently that in addition to the existing campaign programmes, they took some other initiatives to ensure safety on roads.
鈥楥urrently we are implementing a project with the World Bank under which we procure some ambulances for post-accident facilities,鈥� he added.
On April 18, 2023, the executive committee of the National Economic Council approved the World Bank- supported Bangladesh Road Safety Project at a cost of Tk聽4,988 crore.
In June 2025, the interim government, which assumed office on August 8 past year after the ouster of the authoritarian Awami League regime, trimmed the project cost by Tk聽1,576.5 crore.
The government is also working to enact a law to ensure road safety amid frequent fatal road accidents.
