DHAKA, April 9, 2025 (BSS) – The incidents of road crashes were relatively less during this year’s Eid vacation compared to that of the previous festival holiday, Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh (PWAB), said today.

  “Compared to that of the last year, incidents of road crashes this year declined by 21.05 percent, number of deaths declined by 20.88 percent and number of wounded people declined by 40.91 percent,” secretary general of the association M Mozammel Haque Chowdhury told a media briefing.

   He attributed the development to the relatively protracted vacation time allowing people to travel to and from their homes in phases lessening rushes and overcrowdings.

   The PWAB simultaneously noted that laudable passenger-friendly tangible vigilance by regulatory agencies like Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), highway police, army troops and Directorate of Consumer Rights Protection and better road conditions contributed to the lesser number of accidents and casualties.

   According to the PWAB statistics 340 accidents in highways, railways and waterways occurred across Bangladesh during the Eid holiday from March 24 to April 7 this year, claiming 352 lives and wounding 835.

   Chowdhury said of the 340 crashes, 315 took place in highways killing the highest 322 people followed by 21 train accidents killing 20 and four accidents in riverine routes where 10 people lost their lives.

   At the same period in 2024, he said, 399 road accidents took place in the country claiming 407 lives and leaving 1398 people injured.

   The PWAB found motorcycle as the highest accident-prone mode of transport this year as it was in previous years as well.

   It noted that motorbike crashes this year accounted for some 42.85 percent of all road accidents, 46.89 percent of deaths, and 18.76 percent of injuries.

   Chowdhury said during this Eid vacation, 135 motorcycle-related accidents occurred resulting in 151 deaths and 155 injuries.

   The stake of motorbikes in terms of number of road transport modes was 32.27 percent, followed by buses which were 16.56 percent.

   The figure for the battery-powered rickshaws was 14.86 percent, trucks and covered vans was 14.43 percent, private cars and microbuses 8.06 percent, improvised Nasimon–Karimon vehicles 7.21 percent, and CNG-run auto-rickshaws 6.58 percent.

   The PWAB statistics found of those who were killed in crashes 70 were drivers, 47 were transport workers, 50 were pedestrians, 60 were women, 40 were children, 33 were students.

   Of the rest 20 were members of law enforcement agencies, six were teachers, four political leaders and activists and one was journalist.

   “Our patrol teams comprising highways police personnel were alert on different highways. They carried out cautionary campaigns asking drivers to drive safely maintaining traffic rules,” police’s additional inspector general and Highway Police chief M Delwar Hossain Mian earlier told BSS.

   He said the law enforcement agencies had tightened surveillance and ensured security measures on the roads to keep the situation under control across the country before and after the Eid this year. 

    Check posts at toll plazas of major bridges were installed and checked how many trips a single driver was conducting, Mian said.

   BRTA officials said they installed a central control room round the clock from March 28 to April 5 to facilitate easy movement of homebound passengers across the country during the Eid.

   The government also warned all concerned of taking strict action against the traffic rules violations to reduce road accidents across the country.