Casualties in Road Crashes: Campaigners question govt’s low numbers

For the first time, the road transport and bridges ministry has made public the statistics of road accidents and casualties for a particular month, January.

However, the numbers are significantly lower than those reported by a road safety campaign platform.

The move comes a month after the road secretary and transport leaders came down heavily on road safety campaign platforms for publishing what they claimed to be "fabricated" reports on road crashes.

According to Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, 585 people were killed and 899 others injured in 593 road accidents across the country last month.

But according to the report published on the website of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) last week, 333 people died and 336 others were wounded in 322 road crashes in January.

The figures are 45.70 percent, 43.08 percent and 62.62 percent lower respectively than those mentioned in the Jatri Kalyan Samity's report.

The BRTA has collected the data through its eight divisional offices, reads a report sent by the BRTA chairman to the Road Transport and Highways Division on February 6.

Over the last five years, the country has witnessed three movements, including a massive one in July-August 2018, demanding safe roads. Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on many occasions admitted his failure to bring discipline on roads.

At least three road safety campaign platforms early last month published their reports saying that the numbers of both road crashes and deaths went up last year compared to 2021.

But Road Transport and Highways Division Secretary ABM Amin Ullah Nuri at a programme on January 15 blasted the road safety campaigners for publishing "fabricated" reports on road crashes.

He said the reports were creating confusion among the people and tarnishing the country's image abroad.

A transport association leader even demanded legal actions against the road safety campaigners if their reports were found to be not based on facts.

At the same event, the road secretary announced that they would publish reports on road accidents on a monthly basis.

Apart from having their own information, BRTA circle offices at the district level collected data from the district and police administrations, and sent those to the headquarters through divisional offices, said BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder.

"We collect the information regularly and preserve it. But for the first time we have publicly circulated information as many organisations circulated their unverified reports on road crashes," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

Replying to a question, Nur Mohammad said if anyone challenges the BRTA data, they will scrutinise it further.

Mozammel Hoque Chowdhury, secretary general of Jatri Kalyan Samity, said the government has published "confusing data" on road accidents.

He said the actual figures of road accidents and deaths must be higher than those mentioned in the Samity's reports prepared based on media reports as many incidents go unreported.

"If the government publishes data hiding actual numbers, it will not be able to make right decisions," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

Saidur Rahman, executive director of Road Safety Foundation, said, "The numbers [mentioned in the government report] are very low. We don't think the data was collected from very authentic sources."