Only seventeen-year-old Raz Hossain of Bujrukgargari area in Chuadanga town was killed in a fatal road accident recently. His father is an auto-rickshaw (locally-made vehicle) puller.
Raz wanted his father to buy a motorcycle for him for the last couple of days. His father tried to dissuade his son, reminding him of the dangers of riding a motorcycle at this age and his own financial situation. But, unfortunately, Raz's father was forced to buy a motorcycle for his son.
After a few days, Raj started riding his motorcycle at high speed with his friends on the road. On June 16, he was run over by a speedy bus on the Chuadanga-Almadanga road. The college-going boy died on the spot.
Like this, many students die on the roads every day.
According to research by Road Safety Foundation, a total of 5,916 students were killed in different road accidents across the country in the last five and a half years. Of them, 50 percent were killed in motorcycle accidents. And most of the road accidents took place in regional road areas.
The foundation carried out the research on the basis of reports of newspapers and own investigation.
The research showed that a total of 34,478 people were killed from June 2019 to June 2024. Of them, the students account for over 16 percent of the total road accident deaths.
According to the research, a total of 2,641 students between the ages of five and 17 were killed in road accidents, while 2,978 students between the ages of 18 and 25 were killed.
Of those accidents, 2,783 students were killed in motorcycle accidents.
Besides, 1,534 students were killed as pedestrians, and 721 were killed as passengers in different vehicles. On the other hand, 497 students were passengers on motorbikes.
Former director of the Accident Research Institute of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Md. Hadiuzzaman, said more accidents occur when the commute of people increases on unsafe and chaotic roads.
"The same is happening in Bangladesh. It has been seen that students are going to schools and colleges using this road rapidly. Especially outside Dhaka, the number of people using motorcycles has increased a lot when going and returning to and from school. Vehicles can't operate properly on mostly unsafe roads, causing accidents and deaths, especially motorcycle-related accidents and deaths," he said.
Saidur Rahman, executive director of the Road Safety Foundation, said that no long-term sustainable plan is being implemented to establish order in road transportation.
"The initiatives that are being taken are very unscientific and uncoordinated. To establish order on the road, a long-term integrated sustainable transportation strategy must be implemented," he added.
The study attributed several reasons to student deaths on the roads. These include defective roads and unsafe vehicles, a lack of knowledge about road safety, and proper training in educational institutions.
