According to the Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association, 6,729 road accidents occurred in 2025, leaving 14,812 people injured alongside the fatalities. The organisation has identified a familiar but troubling list of causes: defective vehicles, reckless speeding, poor driving attitudes, physical and mental unfitness of drivers, a lack of fixed wages and working hours, slow-moving vehicles on highways, risky motorcycle riding by youths, weak traffic management, limited capacity of the BRTA, and widespread extortion in the public transport sector. Solutions have been proposed repeatedly, yet effective implementation remains elusive.
Accidents are also frequent when slow-moving vehicles operate on highways. In 2015, the government fixed the maximum highway speed at 80 kmph and banned vehicles such as CNG-powered three-wheelers, human haulers, nasimons, karimons and bhatvotis from national highways. However, poor enforcement has rendered these measures largely meaningless. Today, such vehicles move freely on highways, often with the tacit tolerance of authorities influenced by transport owners and workers. As a result, public confidence in road discipline continues to erode.
There is little ambiguity about why accidents occur. Investigations often reveal that vehicles involved in fatal crashes were driven by untrained or unprofessional drivers. Although directives are issued regularly to improve road safety, compliance is rare and accountability even rarer.
The 2018 deaths of two students standing by the roadside sparked nationwide protests led by schoolchildren demanding safe roads. Yet, years later, the situation has scarcely improved. Despite repeated directives from ministers, the higher judiciary and even the head of government, order has not been restored on the roads-a deeply troubling reality.
To break this cycle, political parties must commit to road safety and public transport reform in their election manifestos.
More importantly, policymaking must include representatives of accident victims, passengers and transport workers. Their participation is essential in decisions on accident prevention, fare regulation, and the creation of effective compensation funds. Without such inclusive and enforceable reforms, justice for road accident victims will remain an unfulfilled promise.
MD. Noor Hamza Peash
Legal Researcher, LL.B.
Student
Department of Law, World University of Bangladesh