City Reporter: At least 263 people have been killed in road accidents in Chittagong City in the last three years. Chittagong Metropolitan Police and Chittagong City Corporation published the information in the ‘Road Safety Report’ on Sunday. Global public health organization Vital Strategies helped produce the report under the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) program.
The report was released in the conference hall of CMP in the presence of various government agencies, engineering and medical institutions, and stakeholders working on road safety. Analyzing data on road accidents recorded by the Metropolitan Police from 2020–2022, the published report highlights the patterns and trends of road accidents and also maps high-risk areas. CMP Commissioner Krishna Pad Roy presided over the event. Highlighting the dire picture of road accidents in Bangladesh, the CMP Commissioner said that more people die in road accidents than the number of people who die due to various crimes in Bangladesh every year.
Last July, 296 people were killed across the country. In the same month, 539 people died in road accidents. He mentioned that the government is working to reduce the rate of road accidents by half by 2030. According to the published road safety report, the death rate in road accidents in Chittagong city has increased by 38 percent, from 2.1 to 2.9 people per 1 lakh people in 2020. Most deaths in cities are due to inadequate road infrastructure for safe walking. 56 percent of the total deaths were pedestrians. Apart from this, 30 percent of the total deaths in accidents are motorcycle and three-wheeler driver-passengers.
Being a port city, Chittagong has a large number of heavy trucks plying its roads, and these vehicles are responsible for most of the deaths of pedestrians and motorcyclists, according to the report. According to the report, the highest number of road accidents in the city occurred in the Bayezid Thana area. Next is the Baklia police station area. Pedestrian deaths in crashes of all ages are similar, but the risk is higher among children and the elderly. The report has identified 10 high-risk areas and roads in the city to strengthen road safety in the city.
According to this, the most dangerous road is the Bahaddarhat to Shah Amanat Bridge link road, where about five people have died every kilometer in the last three years. On the other hand, the most dangerous places in the city are Tiger Pass Junction and Khejurtala on the Outer Ring Road. Five people have died within 250 meters there in the last three years.
The report recommends stopping reckless driving, widening footpaths for pedestrians to walk safely, constructing elevated crosswalks, ensuring uninterrupted footpaths, and encouraging the use of bicycles instead of motorcycles to make city roads safer. Besides, emphasis has been placed on bus route rationalization in the city to control reckless driving.
The initiative coordinator of BIGRS spoke, among others. Abdul Wadud, surveillance coordinator Kazi Md. Saifun Newaz, Senior Technical Advisor of Vital Strategies Mirik Pala, and Chittagong City Corporation Chief Engineer Rafiqul Islam
