Causes behind the Increasing Rate of Road Accidents
City dwellers are often required to travel daily between their homes, workplaces, or academic institutions to ensure their basic fundamental rights and financial stability. However, long hours of traffic and jams, as well as the potential of road accidents, pose a life-threatening risk to commuters. Several development projects in Dhaka Metropolitan City have aimed to ease the daily commute struggles by constructing various expressways, flyovers, and foot-over bridges. Even then, the hurried and careless driving of the vehicle owner or drivers, who fail to follow traffic rules, causes casualties and injuries. In these cases, some may be traveling in the other vehicles, while others may be crossing the roads.
Observing the recent incidents while daily travelling and reviewing some established research, some grounds have been identified behind how these accidents occur:
Firstly, the lack of attention towards the traffic rules and signals leads drivers to hit-and-run cases. Most drivers who get into accidents fail to maintain their lanes or follow traffic signals. Hence, they are often seen jostling with their vehicles on the double-lane, busy roads and at various intersections. Most drivers are not empathetic to others and only see their own way out, which leads to unnecessary delays and congestion for every traveler.
Another cause is that drivers of local buses and trucks often engage in high-speed races to secure more trips and passengers, even when they feel physically exhausted due to sleep deprivation. They frequently ignore the speed limits or the signals where they see pedestrians walking. Even now, private car drivers move at excessive speeds. There have been several reported cases of direct clashes between vehicles or collisions with road dividers on the Purbachal Expressway, as well as in Banani and Gulshan. The causes of these accidents are noted as driver fatigue, driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, taking the wrong route, and sudden brake failure.
Moreover, an excessive number of battery-run rickshaws on the main roads and even on highways is causing some sudden collisions, leaving people injured or even putting them to death. Their faulty design, lack of proper training, and failure to comply with the Bangladesh Road and Transport Authority’s regulations pose a danger to pedestrians. The rickshaw pullers frequently take the wrong route and don’t even consider this action a fault or violation of traffic laws. Even some passengers allow them to take the wrong path, which shows a lack of willingness to prioritize safety.
In addition to the existing causes, potholes on the roads and the need for continuous repairs often lead to traffic congestion. There is a common practice in Bangladesh to repair roads right before or during the rainy season. However, this action sometimes confuses the drivers, and without being able to see the roads clearly due to waterlogging (if present), they may lose control and fall into a pothole, injuring themselves. Sometimes, pedestrians lose their lives by falling into an open sewage line. The recent incident in Tongi, Gazipur, where a working mother tragically lost her life, stands as a truth too bitter to ignore.
Last but most importantly, people are very reluctant to use foot over-bridges. Rather than going up to the bridge and crossing the roads safely, they use broken divider points as an escape to reach the other side. As a reason behind not using the foot over bridges, people mention this process as a ‘Herculean’ task and a big waste of their precious time. In most instances, they don’t want to wait for the halt of vehicular movement and try to cross between the moving vehicles by showing their hands, indicating that stricter vehicle laws will not fully address this scenario.
Now the two big questions are: Is it becoming an urban disaster? Will there be any concrete solution?
A Vicious Way to Urban Disaster
Urban disaster refers to a catastrophic event that results in loss of life, assets, or property damage due to natural or human-induced causes. Although natural disruptions do not directly cause these road accidents (the effect of the monsoon is a special criterion to be considered in this context), human-induced factors are solely responsible.
Examining the existing statistical data on road accidents reveals a sharp rise from 2021 through mid-2025. In 2021, 131 accidents were reported, resulting in 137 fatalities; however, this number doubled in 2022. Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka Metropolitan Police jointly conducted a study, which found that 117 road crashes and accidents resulted in 123 fatalities in 2023. 58% of the crashes involved pedestrians, and 60% of motorcyclists died in rear-end collisions. In 2024, 394 accidents were reported in Dhaka, resulting in 246 deaths. 587 accident cases were reported nationwide, resulting in 604 fatalities and 1,231 injuries in March 2025, with the Dhaka division ranking at the top. During the Eid vacation from 3rd June to 14th June 2025, 38 accidents occurred, causing six fatalities and 53 injuries, indicating higher reported cases than previous Eid holidays. All these data suggest that these incidents are not mere coincidences or separate events, but rather a deadly pattern that leads to urban disaster. In this case, one group supports having strict laws enforced to reduce road accidents, whereas some other groups prefer raising awareness on an individual level to reduce the number of accidents significantly. Nonetheless, will any single solution alleviate this rising trend and prevent this soon-to-be urban disaster?
From my perspective, only having strict law enforcement can not remove the root of the problem. Without people being aware of their safety, no significant amount of penalties will teach people how to behave on the roads. It is the individual human being who should be more aware while crossing the street, driving any vehicle, or following traffic rules. For instance, a car should stop at a red light even if no one is crossing the road. They should maintain the lanes and adjust their driving accordingly to proper guidelines and vehicular indicators. Foremost, drivers should not rush or speed just because they or their passengers are late for an appointment or party. If everyone remains alert and cautious while driving, the workload of the traffic police will be reduced by half. Of course, there is a need for strict law enforcement to maintain discipline. However, improved traffic laws cannot influence people if they lack the willpower to change the scenario.
Every life is precious. Losing this irrecoverable asset on the roads because of the reckless acts of others is not worth it at all!
About the author:
Samiha Saleha is working at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) as a Research Associate for the LLA Programme. Her areas of research interest include disaster risk reduction, locally led adaptation, loss and damage, and climate change and environment. She can be reached at samiha.saleha@icccad.org
