At least 1,16,726 people were killed and 1,65,021 others were injured in 67,890 road accidents across Bangladesh in the past 12 years, according to a report released by the Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh on Tuesday.
Leaders of the association said that they had collected the accident data from different media reports while the situations at the hospitals suggested that the number of causalities in road accidents was much higher in reality.
They blamed corruption in the road transport sector and 鈥榳rong鈥� policies of the government for the deaths on roads.
The association published the report at a press conference held at the Dhaka Reporter鈥檚 Unity in the capital Dhaka, marking National Road Safety Day 2025.
National Road Safety Day 2025 will be observed today.
Between 2014 and September 2025, as per the report, the highest number of people 鈥� 9,951 鈥� was killed in 2022 while the highest number of people 鈥� 21,855 鈥� was injured in 2015.
In the report, the association assumed that while the injured people went through treatment at hospitals, 15 per cent of them later died.
The number of people who later died at hospitals was 24,753. Excluding the number, 91,973 people were killed on roads during the period.
At the press conference, PWAB secretary general Md Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said that before the independence of Bangladesh, the share of railways and waterways was 80 per cent and the share of roads was 20 per cent in the overall transport.
He alleged that after the country鈥檚 independence, the successive governments built new roads on the advices of different donor agencies and embezzled a huge amount of money.
鈥榃hen the share of roads in the overall transport became 80 per cent, the road accidents also increased proportionately,鈥� Mozammel said.
He said that rampant irregularities and corruption, mismanagement, extortion by transport owners and workers, corruption by a section of police officials, disorder on roads, movement of unfit vehicles, drivers without licence and training and underage drivers marked the three consecutive periods of the Awami League-led government which was ousted in August past year in a mass uprising.
To improve the situation, the association presented a 12-point charter of recommendations, including multimodal transport system, reformation of the transport sector and ensuring good governance and accountability in the road transport sector. 聽