As was the case during past Eid-ul-Fitr holidays, the incumbent BNP-led government, too, had no shortage of assurances, nor goodwill, to ensure a safe Eid travel home and back for Eid holidaymakers this year. True, security measures were apparently beefed up, strong monitoring was mounted, additional traffic police were deployed, help desks established and mobile courts activated. Based on these measures of road safety undertaken, some government ministers even claimed that this year's Eid travel would be the safest as well as the smoothest and most hassle-free in living memory! Obviously, the ministers appeared to be overoptimistic about their observation and too soon.
Now, consider the tragedy that occurred at the Daulatdia Ferry Terminal of Goalundo in Rajbari district on Wednesday (March 25) afternoon. A Dhaka-bound bus from Kumarkhali with some 45 passengers on board lost control and plunged from the pontoon bridge into the Padma River. So far, according to reports, firemen and divers in rescue operation could recover some 24 bodies. Evidently, this is going to add to the mounting death toll from road accidents during the Eid holidays this year. One might also add here the other tragedy that claimed some 12 lives in the wee hours of Sunday the day after Eid when a train rammed into a bus that was trying to cross the level crossing at Padua Bazar in Cumilla.
In fact, the trend this year indicates that the death toll on account of road accidents might be higher during this Eid than anytime in the past. According to the data provided by the Road Safety Foundation (RFS), a non-governmental advocacy platform dedicated to road safety, in eight days between March 17 and March 24, the day government offices opened after Eid holidays, some 204 people died in 268 road accidents. The figures are still preliminary because more fatality figures would come once people begin to return to Dhaka after celebrating Eid with their near and dear ones in the countryside. In fact, full reports related to the accidents on roads, railways and waterways could not be obtained until normal official activities begin tomorrow. However, to have a full account of the fatalities relating to Eid holidays, non-government organisations usually take into account 15 days' road accidents and attendant death and injury figures. Their record keeping starts from seven (7) days before the Eid-ul-Fitr including day of Eid prayer plus seven (7) days after Eid prayer. So, according to them, in the past, road accident-related death toll on Eid holidays would range between 300 and 400. Jatri Kalyan Samity (JKS), a private body that keeps record of road accidents holds that last year (2025), road accidents claimed on an average 16.22 lives a day.
That is for the simple reason that the law-enforcement agencies' surveillance on the roads gets more relaxed once the festival is over. This time was no exception. The Daulatdia tragedy itself bears testimony to that. In fact, it is not only the big transports like bus that cause most accidents. Smaller vehicles including contraptions like battery-run rickshaws, easy bikes, let alone motorbikes, are to blame most for the rising number of Eid-related road accidents that devastate families. The government would be required to adopt strict legal measures to control Eid-time road tragedies.
