June 26, 2025
DHAKA – Eid-ul-Azha, a festival of family unity and sacrifice, was marred this year—as it has been for many years—by a tragic undercurrent: avoidable deaths on the road. One story stands out among the growing number of casualties. A teenager, from a remote area, was travelling to Dhaka with his father to sell their sacrificial cow. A road accident claimed his father’s life. Devastated and alone, the teenager buried his father, then continued his journey to sell the cow. This story reflects not just one individual’s tragedy, but deep societal failures, where survival has taken precedence over mourning and road safety is consistently neglected. It highlights a profound national dysfunction: the economy of survival outweighs the right to grieve, while the failure of road safety continues to claim lives with alarming frequency.
According to the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity’s Road Accident Monitoring Cell, 379 road accidents claimed 390 lives and left 1,182 others injured this year. This marks a sharp rise compared to 2024, which saw 309 accidents, 336 deaths, and 762 injuries—a 22.65 percent increase in accidents, a 16.07 percent rise in fatalities, and a 55.11 percent surge in injuries. Motorcycles were the most vulnerable, accounting for 35.35 percent of all crashes. In 2023, 312 road accidents during Eid-ul-Azha resulted in 340 deaths and 569 injuries. Eid-ul-Fitr this year was similarly tragic, with 315 accidents, 322 fatalities, and 826 injuries. Rail and water routes also saw fatalities, bringing the total to 340 accidents, 352 deaths, and 835 injuries across all transport routes.
The surge in motorcycle use highlights the country’s road safety crisis. A decade ago, there were about 1.5 million motorcycles. Today, over 6 million crowd the streets. Alongside them, 6 million battery-powered rickshaws operate largely unregulated. This increase has overwhelmed both infrastructure and oversight. Many motorcycles are driven by unlicensed, untrained youths—some even teenagers. In 2021, students made up 13 percent of road fatalities, highlighting a dangerous lack of safety education.
The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), responsible for regulating this chaos, faces criticism for inefficiency and corruption. Its focus remains on revenue, registrations, taxes, and renewals, rather than enforcing road safety. Traffic police, often underpaid and overstretched, view fines as income rather than a deterrent. Highways lack pedestrian safety features, and road audits are infrequent.
Despite the student-led road safety protests in 2018, which subsequently brought the passage of the Road Transport Act, 2018, enforcement remains inconsistent. The act introduced stricter penalties and a point-based licensing system for repeat offenders. However, under pressure from transport unions and political lobbies, implementation has been weak. Laws may exist on paper, but the streets of Bangladesh still operate under a kind of informal lawlessness.
This issue is more than just transport; it’s symptomatic of deep governance failure. According to the World Bank (2023), Bangladesh has South Asia’s highest road fatality rate, with 102 deaths per 10,000 vehicles, compared to India’s 13 and Sri Lanka’s 7. What makes this particularly alarming is that Bangladesh has only 18 vehicles per 1,000 people, indicating that the problem lies not in the volume of vehicles, but in how transport is managed. The economic cost is equally grave: the WHO estimates that road crashes cost developing countries up to 3 percent of GDP. For Bangladesh, a country aiming to graduate from least developed country status, this burden is unsustainable.
Moreover, these accidents erode public trust in institutions. When citizens see that road laws are ignored, reckless drivers go unpunished, and victims rarely receive compensation, a culture of impunity develops. The system seems to protect powerful transport owners and syndicates more than ordinary citizens.
What must be done?
The first step is firm and transparent enforcement of the Road Transport Act, 2018, free from political interference. The BRTA must undergo rapid digitisation to eliminate corruption and increase transparency in licensing and vehicle fitness certification. Its primary focus should shift from revenue generation to regulation.
Unlicensed drivers, especially motorcyclists, must be swiftly identified and removed from the roads. The government should invest in short-term awareness campaigns, particularly among young drivers, and enforce the use of helmets and safety gear.
Additionally, the country must invest in safer road infrastructure, such as dedicated lanes for motorcycles, more pedestrian crossings, and separate corridors for heavy and light vehicles. Public transport systems must be revitalised to reduce reliance on dangerous motorcycles and unregulated battery rickshaws.
In the long term, Bangladesh should establish an independent National Road Safety Authority to coordinate across ministries, hold agencies accountable, and create a cohesive national strategy for road safety that extends to 2030 and beyond. Road safety education should be mandatory in schools, and regular road audits must be conducted—not just before Eid or in response to political pressure.
Bangladesh has demonstrated time and again that it can overcome enormous challenges when the political will exists. The road safety crisis demands that same urgency and determination. Until then, the roads will continue to run red—not from traffic lights, but from the blood of its citizens.
Nafew Sajed Joy is a writer, researcher, and environmentalist. He can be reached at nafew.sajed@gmail.com.
Views expressed in this article are the author’s own.