360 Students Killed in Six Months on Bangladesh Roads

Road accidents claimed the lives of 360 students across Bangladesh during the first six months of the year, highlighting the continuing threat to young lives despite years of calls for stronger road safety measures. Another 109 students were injured in 320 separate road crashes during the same period.

The figures were released on Saturday by the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity in a press statement issued to mark the 15th anniversary of the Mirsharai road tragedy, one of the deadliest road accidents involving students in the country’s history.

According to the organisation’s Secretary-General, Md Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, improving road safety awareness among students could play a vital role in creating safer roads while also helping to build a more disciplined society. He argued, however, that there has been no consistent nationwide road safety awareness programme involving students, teachers and parents since the Mirsharai tragedy. As a result, hundreds of students continue to lose their lives or suffer serious injuries in road crashes every year, with some left permanently disabled.

The Mirsharai tragedy occurred on 11 July 2011, when a mini-truck carrying schoolchildren lost control and plunged into a roadside ditch in Chattogram’s Mirsharai area. The accident killed 45 people, making it one of the worst single road disasters involving students in Bangladesh. The incident sparked nationwide grief and prompted renewed demands for stricter road safety measures, but campaigners argue that many of those recommendations have yet to be fully implemented.

Chowdhury said the continued loss of young lives demonstrates that awareness campaigns and preventive measures remain inadequate. He stressed that road safety education should become an integral part of students’ everyday learning rather than being limited to occasional campaigns following major accidents.

Statistics compiled by the organisation show that student fatalities remained consistently high throughout the first half of the year.

To reduce student casualties, the Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity has proposed five key measures. These include incorporating road safety lessons into school textbooks, organising at least one road safety awareness programme every month in educational institutions, installing zebra crossings and warning signs on national and regional highways, particularly near schools and colleges, appointing dedicated road safety guards to assist students when crossing busy roads, and establishing road safety committees in every educational institution comprising teachers and students.

Road safety experts have long argued that awareness alone is not enough. They say improved traffic law enforcement, safer school transport, better pedestrian infrastructure and stricter monitoring of reckless driving are equally important to reducing fatalities. The latest figures suggest that protecting students on Bangladesh’s roads remains an urgent challenge requiring sustained action from government agencies, educational institutions, transport operators and the public alike.