No End to Road Carnage in Sylhet: 288 Lives Lost in Nine Months

There seems to be no end to fatal road accidents in Sylhet Division. Statistics show that 288 people died in road crashes in this division alone in the first nine months of this year — an average of more than 32 deaths a month, meaning at least one fatal accident almost every day.

That number is not just a statistic; behind every death is a family whose dreams have been shattered, a household plunged into uncertainty after losing its breadwinner, and children facing an uncertain future. Traffic on highways and regional roads across the division's four districts — Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj and Sunamganj — has multiplied, but road safety has not kept pace, a longstanding complaint.

Thousands of passenger buses, goods trucks, pickups, CNG-run auto-rickshaws and motorcycles travel the division's major highways every day. On many stretches of main roads including the Dhaka-Sylhet highway, the carriageway is narrow, bends are dangerous and there are no dividers in many places, so head-on collisions happen frequently.

Road safety organisations have long said the main causes of crashes include reckless speed, unskilled and unlicensed drivers, unfit vehicles, competitive overtaking and exhausted drivers. The tendency of long-distance drivers to drive for hours without rest has also been identified as a major cause.

Added to this is slow and fast vehicles sharing the same lanes on highways. The uncontrolled movement of auto-rickshaws, battery-run rickshaws and motorcycles, and the lack of safe crossing points for pedestrians, are further raising the risk of accidents, stakeholders say.

The deaths of 288 people in nine months imply that the number of injured is several times higher, as is usually the case with road crashes. Many survivors are left permanently disabled, losing their ability to work for life, while medical costs push families towards poverty.

Although no district-wise breakdown is available, local media in Sylhet report accidents somewhere in the division almost every day. Sometimes a bus-truck collision, sometimes a motorcycle crash, sometimes a pedestrian killed — this unbroken sequence itself shows the gravity of the situation.

Road safety experts believe this trend cannot be stopped by investigations after accidents alone; preventive measures are needed — removing unfit vehicles from the roads, strictness in driver training and licence checks, enforcing speed limits on highways, and identifying and fixing dangerous spots.

At the same time, awareness among passengers and drivers is also essential, they say. Following simple rules such as wearing seatbelts, wearing helmets on motorcycles, not using mobile phones while driving and obeying speed limits could prevent many accidents.

Concerned quarters argue that regular monitoring by law enforcement, separate lanes and service roads on highways, and stronger warning systems at accident-prone 'black spots' could significantly reduce the death toll.

The toll of 288 lives lost in nine months is a renewed call to rethink road safety in Sylhet Division. To stop the number from rising further in the rest of the year, a combined effort by the administration, transport owners' and workers' organisations and ordinary passengers is now the demand of the time.