Keeping track of road tragedy victims

That a considerable number of Eid travellers would die and get hurt during their journey home in the districts, upazilas and villages and back is normal and as such accepted by all in Bangladesh society. And the media routinely publishes reports on the major accidents, which obviously include fatalities. Few of such fatal accidents raise eyebrows or cause an outrage unless the number of deaths is too high, or the victims are from the upper echelons of society.  For the victims of ordinary background, they are just numbers or pure statistics for use of those conducting studies on transport-related accidents. To be frank, with so many reports of deaths and injuries due mainly to accidents involving buses or other motorized and non-motorized vehicles on the highways being published in the media about every day, the public have practically got desensitized to such news.

But the fact remains that those are real life tragedies for the people  directly affected by the accidents.  At this point, the organizations dedicated to collecting reports on transport-related accidents throughout the year with particular attention to those that take place during the annual journeys home and back by Eid holidaymakers deserve especial thanks. One such organization, the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samilty (BJKS), (Bangladesh Passengers Welfare Association), has come up with a report on the number of people who died and got injured in road accidents between May 21 and June 4, the days of Eid-ul Azha vacation. The report says, the accidents claimed 402 lives and inflicted injuries on 1,294 persons. And the number of accidents involved in these casualties was 394. In other words, every accident claimed at least one life and inflicted injuries on more than 3.28 persons, or close to 33 injuries for every 10 accidents.  If compared with the road accidents during the Eid-ul Azha vacation of last year (2025), then the casualty figures are higher. For, according to BJKS, last year, 390 people died and 1,182 sustained injuries in 379 road accidents during the Eid-ul Azha vacation. That means, compared with last year, road accidents have increased by 3.95 per cent or approximately 4 per cent this year  which resulted in 3.07 per cent or about 3 per cent more fatalities and 9.47 per cent more injuries during this Eid-ul  Azha vacation.  Unfortunately, members of the public reading or viewing the accident reports often ignore those on injuries. But those sustaining serious injuries may prove to be more painful for the victims themselves and their family members than the dead ones. In fact, treatment of a severely injured person may be too costly, particularly for  the poor households. Apart from treatment costs, the injury victims may become permanently disabled turning themselves  into an enormous economic burden for the families they belong to.  

So, the dead as well as the seriously injured should be equally treated by those concerned in the government and at the private level. The government should keep track of the families of the dead as well as the injured.  And if ever any compensation mechanism is put in place for the families of death victims as well as of the severely injured in road accidents, the records thus maintained would help provide support to the victims and their families. The transport companies whose errant drivers and their assistants are found responsible for the fatal accidents should be made to pay compensation for the victim families. To make such arrangements happen, what is necessary is the goodwill. Because passenger safety should be of utmost priority for transport companies.

So, far as the government's role in ensuring safety of those travelling by  road, rail or water transports is concerned, it should not only be about the days preceding and following the Edid vacations. Seeing that the road accidents during the Eid travels are on the increase, the government would be required to enhance monitoring of the highways through efficient use of technology as well as manpower.

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