Everyone deserves access to safe streets, yet more than 30,000 people are killed in road crashes in Bangladesh each year. That’s according to the World Health Organization Global Road Safety Status Report 2023, which outlines the global progress made toward reducing traffic crashes, saving lives and identifying gaps to improve road safety.
Bangladesh is working to improve road safety, yet like many countries, a lack of access to reliable and accurate road crash data means that it isn’t clear what challengesdrivers, motorcyclists and pedestrians are facing. Knowing who is dying on roads and where and why crashes are happening is key for governments to implement effective policies to save countless lives.
With this in mind, the Chattogram City Corporation and the Chattogram Metropolitan Police recently conducted a joint analysis of crash data from 2020 to 2022. This initiative aimed to understand local road safety problems, such as the circumstances that lead to a crash and how these crashes affect road users. This analysis culminated in a report, “Chattogram City Road Safety Report 2020-2022.”
The report found that 263 people died on Chattogram’s roads from 2020 to 2022, and an alarming 56% of those who died were pedestrians. A high percentage of pedestrian fatalities often indicates a high incidence of speeding, especially in pedestrian-heavy areas. Two- and three-wheeler riders—who lack the protection that four-wheel vehicles offer—accounted for 30% of deaths. People ages20to 54 were killed the most on the roads. Critically, the report identified the top 10 crash-prone locations and top 10 crash-prone corridors in Chattogram.
The reassuring news: There are clear strategies that can be implemented to reduce these crashes and prevent more injuries and deaths. The WHO has outlined the most effective policies and programs that can reduce speed and save lives. These include engineering treatments, such as designing roads for 30 km/h travel speeds in pedestrian-heavy areas, as well as traffic calming, street transformations, police enforcement initiatives such as those that focus on speeding, and communication campaigns that target the 20- to 54-year-old age group.
With this new data, interventions can now be tailor-made for Chattogram’s specific needs. For instance, the report showed that the most common type of crash in Chattogram involved pedestrians hit by heavy vehicles such as trucks, buses and minibuses. The Chattogram City Corporation should respond to this information by considering pedestrian safety measures such as building a continuous network of footpaths, adjusting infrastructure to reduce speed, and providing safe pedestrian crossings in locations where data shows people commonly cross the road. In addition, they should work with the police to enhance enforcement of speeding by heavy vehicles.
A key challenge in Bangladesh is the lack of speed limit regulations with assigned fines. In the absence of this national mandate, the city should focus on engineering measures to slow down speeding in areas with many pedestrians, such schools, marketplaces, bazaars and residential areas. This includes implementing speed humps and raised crosswalks, narrowing lanes, expanding and widening footpaths, and other junction modifications.
As the lead authority for road safety in Chattogram, the city can leverage this data to develop strategies to prevent crashes and save lives. While the three-year data report is a strong step, further improvement is still needed in crash data collection, linkage, analysis and use. This includes simple data improvements such as ensuring that locations of crashes are recorded and practices to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, missing data. Strengthening the use of the national crash database system by defining how data is supposed to be collected and analysed is also important. Finally, the data should be shared to as wide a group of stakeholders as possible so that everyone can participate in addressing road safety.
The latest report showed the importance of data to save lives on the road. The Chattogram City Corporation and Chattogram Metropolitan Police, and all stakeholders in road safety, now have the opportunity to transform this data into effective actions and interventions. In addition to using the data for evidence-based decision-making, parallel efforts on data improvement are needed. Consistent, reliable and up-to-date data must be maintained, shared and made available in Chattogram and in the rest of Bangladesh to support targeted and effective interventions. This way, a healthier and safer Chattogram, and Bangladesh, can become a reality.
Kazi Shifun Newaz, Surveillance Coordinator, Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), Chattogram and Mirick Paala, Senior Advisor for Surveillance Systems Strengthening in Asia,
Vital Strategies.
