A 36-year-old man and his minor daughter were killed when a truck hit their bike in the Taribaria Bazar area of Pabna Sadar upazila on Friday, police said.
The deceased have been identified as Alamgir Mollah and his daughter Sinha (6). Alamgir’s wife Nasrin Aktar also sustained injuries in the accident, and has been admitted to a local hospital.
Police officer Nasim Ahmed said the trio was travelling towards Sujanagar in the morning when the sand-laden truck hit their bike, killing the father-daughter duo on the spot.
Following the accident, agitated locals vandalised the truck but its driver and his assistant managed to flee, the officer said.
Road accidents in Bangladesh
Road accidents in Bangladesh continue to claim hundreds of lives every year.
At least 484 people were killed and 673 others injured in as many as 427 road accidents in January this year.
According to NGO Road Safety Foundation (RSF), the accident rate increased by 25.58 percent while fatalities rose by 8.76 percent in January this year as compared to the same period last year.
At least 445 lives were lost in 340 road accidents in January 2020, according to RSF.
In a report released in February 2020, the World Bank pointed out that Bangladesh needs to invest an estimated $7.8 billion over the next decade to halve its road crash fatalities.
The report attributed the high death rate on Bangladesh’s roads to lack of investments in systemic, targeted, and sustained road safety programmes.
