Some 5,024 people were killed and 7,495 injured in 5,495 road accidents across the country in 2023, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) on Tuesday, claiming that the data released by others to be exaggerated.
Sharing the data at a press conference, BRTA Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder said the figures were much lower than that of the estimates by others, including the World Health Organisation.
He said the WHO report published recently went beyond the reality as their calculation was based on estimated information and a regression model that differs from one country to another.
In contrast, he claimed, the BRTA compiled data from its circle offices in 64 districts after verifying the information collected from police, district administration, national and local dailies and electronic media every month.
Mazumder also claimed that the accident reports released by Bangladesh Police, Road Safety Foundation (RSF) and Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association (BPWA) were exaggerated ones.
At a separate press conference at Setu Bhaban on Tuesday, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader also rejected the WHO report in this regard and said the WHO failed to provide an accurate answer.
"Who provided WHO with the list (of accidents and casualties)? Different organisations have also provided exaggerated statistics at their will," he told the media, replying to a question.
He also criticised the BPWA and the media for feeding propaganda with three times more accidents than reality.
According to the BRTA, Bangladesh Police reported 4,475 deaths in 5,093 accidents, RSF 6,524 deaths in 6,911 accidents and BPWA 7,902 deaths in 6,261 road accidents.
WHO in its global status report on road safety 2023, released on December 13 last, reported accident-related deaths were 31,578 in 2021.
Replying to a question about the missing information on accident-related deaths at different hospitals, the BRTA chairman said the BRTA has taken moves to incorporate the data shared by the health directorate regularly.
He said the website of the health directorate posted 2,437 road accident-related deaths in hospitals from January to November in 2023, but the figure should be 2,146.
According to the BRTA's year-long data, motorcycles dominated the road accidents with 1,747 incidents.
Some 7,837 vehicles were involved in road accidents in 2023, of which 206 were cars/jeeps, 183 buses and minibuses, 1,389 trucks and covered vans, 370 pickups, 226 microbuses, 161 ambulances, 1,747 motorcycles, 230 vans, 128 tractors, 217 easy bikes, 415 battery-run rickshaws, 497 autorickshaws and 1,168 other vehicles.
smunima@yahoo.com