Road safety platform blames rising number of motorbikes

A road safety platform on Monday attributed rising number of motorbikes to upward trend in road accidents in the last couple of years.
Nirapad Sarak Chai (We Want Safe Road) movement also said 27 per cent of the people died in road accidents in the last calendar year, were motorbike riders.
In addition to this, of the total 15 lives lost in the road accidents within the capital city in the last two months, seven were riding on motorbikes, the leaders of the platform said.
They came up with the observations at a press conference at the National Press Club to announce a month-long campaign to raise awareness about road safety among the people centring October 22 as National Safe Roads Day.
Film actor and founder of the platform commonly known as NISCHA Ilias Kanchan, its secretary general Syed Ehsan ul Huque Kamal and Belayet Hossain Khan Nantu were present at the press briefing, among others.
Speaking on the occasion, Ilias Kanchan said the platform will organise various programmes aimed at creating awareness among the people about road safety this month alongside the schedules designed by the government.
He said the country will observe October 22 as the National Safe Roads Day for the second year, as the government declared the day in June last year.
"The road safety movement launched by the school -going students two months ago vigorously highlighted the issue," he said.
The government has also taken several initiatives in response to the movement, he added.
"We have undertaken various programmes regarding road safety issues across the country this month," he said, adding that these include special campaign, workshops, discussions, rally, press conference and doa mahfil with the participation of people representing from various walks of lives.
He also said it is high time to raise public voice for safe roads as many people are losing their near and dear ones every day.
Mr Kanchan also presented a figure of road crashes that took place in recent years.
Some 2,347 road accidents claimed 5,003 lives in 2016, while the number of accidents and death toll increased to 3,349 and 5,645 respectively in 2017, he said.
Till September this year, 2,338 road accidents claimed 2,830 lives, added Mr Kanchan, who has been vocal for road safety issues for the last 25 years.
He attributed rising number of motorbikes as a key reason to growing number of accidents in the last couple of years.
The number of motorcycles has grown by three times to 2.2 million units at present, from 0.7 million in 2016, he said.

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