The chaos on the country's roads and highways is not going away. Accidents and deaths are increasing by leaps and bounds. Even though illegal vehicles including battery-powered rickshaws are plying the roads, the law enforcement agencies are unable to stop them. All government initiatives including the Road Safety Task Force and the National Road Safety Council are ineffective. Not a single meeting has been held to restore order on the roads in the last 15 months. In this situation, National Road Safety Day is being celebrated today, Wednesday. This year's theme is - 'Quality helmets and safe speed, loss of life and property will be reduced'. But the real picture of the country's roads says the opposite. According to government and private statistics, the procession of deaths on the roads is getting longer.

According to a report released by the Passenger Welfare Association on Tuesday, 116,726 people were killed in 67,890 road accidents in the country from 2014 to September this year. 165,021 people were injured in these accidents. On average, 27 people lose their lives on the roads every day and 38 are injured.

In 2023 alone, 7,090 people died in road accidents. In 2024, the number of deaths increased to 8,543. That is, deaths increased by more than 20 percent in one year. Last September, 502 people were killed and 964 injured in 504 road accidents across the country.

However, the data from the government agency BRTA is somewhat different. According to them, 5,024 people were killed in road accidents in 2023. In 2024, this number stood at 5,380. Last September alone, 435 accidents claimed 409 lives and 455 were injured. Last Monday, eight people lost their lives in six accidents across the country in a single day; one was injured.