262 people killed in Bangladesh road crashes during Eid al-Adha festival rush

DHAKA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- As many as 262 people were killed and 543 others injured in 251 road accidents within 13 days, from June 11 to June 23, during the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival rush in Bangladesh, said a report published here Monday.

According to the Road Safety Foundation, a local non-government organization, the deceased included 32 women and 44 children.

The foundation said in a press release that 104 people died in 129 motorcycle accidents, which accounted for about 40 percent of the total deaths.

It said they collected the data based on reports in national dailies, online news portals and electronic media in Bangladesh.

The statistics indicated that bike-related deaths rose by 13.31 percent compared to the same period in the last year's Eid rush.

Referring to the International Road Assessment Program method, the foundation said Bangladesh incurred nearly 10 billion taka (Tk 998.55 crore) loss of human resources due to the road crashes. (1 U.S. dollar equals to about 118 taka)