Road safety warning in Bangladesh

By Alastair Lawson
BBC News

Traffic accidents are one of the biggest killers in Bangladesh

A prominent Bangladeshi academic has warned that action must be taken to reduce the number of road traffic accidents in the country.

Speaking to the BBC on road safety day, Shamsul Hoque said that as many as 12,000 people a year were being killed on Bangladesh's roads.

The figure, based on a World Bank study, is three times the official one.

Mr Hoque said the high number of deaths had more to do with people walking on roads, than with there being more cars.

More killed

"The main problem is the number of people walking on the streets and roads because there is no footpath or because the footpath has been taken over by illegal hawkers and traders," said Mr Hoque, the director of accident research at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

Police are clamping down on dangerous driving

He said that while official figures only showed that around 3,500 people are killed annually on Bangladesh's roads, a recently completed World Bank study showed that the real figure was at least three times that number.

Mr Hoque said that more people are killed on the roads as each year goes by and the government needed to take action to address the problem.

The campaign this year is being spear-headed by the actor Ilyas Kanchan, whose wife was killed in a road accident.

Another prominent victim this year was former Finance Minister Saifur Rahman who was killed in a road traffic accident in September.

Road safety has become an increasing concern across South Asia as the number of roads and vehicles increases.

Figures released by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority show that last year alone 20,000 new vehicles took to the streets of Dhaka.