More Than 7,300 Students Killed in Bangladesh Road Crashes Since 2019: RSF Report

More than 7,300 students have lost their lives in road accidents across Bangladesh since 2019, according to a new report by the Road Safety Foundation (RSF), underscoring the continuing challenges in improving road safety despite years of public demands for reform.


Released on Tuesday ahead of the eighth anniversary of the 2018 road safety movement, the report states that 7,364 students were killed in road crashes between 2019 and June 2026. Student fatalities accounted for more than 15 percent of all road accident deaths recorded during the seven-and-a-half-year period.


The report commemorates the nationwide movement that followed the deaths of two students from Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College in Dhaka, an incident that triggered widespread calls for safer roads and stricter enforcement of traffic regulations.


According to the findings, 3,328 school and madrasa students aged between 5 and 17 were killed, representing 45.19 percent of total student fatalities. Meanwhile, 4,036 college and university students aged between 18 and 25 lost their lives, accounting for 54.8 percent of the deaths.


Motorcycle-related accidents emerged as the leading cause of student fatalities. The report shows that 3,841 students, or 52.15 percent, died while riding or driving motorcycles. Another 1,923 students were killed as pedestrians after being struck by vehicles, while 927 lost their lives as passengers in various forms of transport.


The report also recorded 519 deaths involving students travelling by bicycle or rickshaw, while 154 students died in incidents where scarves or clothing became entangled in the wheels of autorickshaws.


Regionally, the highest number of student fatalities occurred on regional roads, where 2,149 students were killed. Rural roads accounted for 1,947 deaths, followed by 1,786 deaths on city roads and 1,482 fatalities on highways.

Among pedestrian victims, rural roads proved the deadliest, recording 726 deaths, followed by city roads with 537, regional roads with 409, and highways with 251.


The RSF noted that children aged between 5 and 12 were most often killed after being hit by autorickshaws, motorcycles and goods vehicles while travelling to and from school or playing near their homes, particularly in rural areas.

For students aged 13 to 25, motorcycles were identified as the primary risk factor, with the majority of fatal crashes occurring on regional roads and highways.

The report also highlighted railway accidents as a growing concern. During the same period, 1,237 students died after being struck by trains while crossing railway tracks carelessly or walking along railway lines while wearing headphones.

According to the Road Safety Foundation, several factors continue to contribute to the high number of student fatalities. These include poor road conditions, unsafe vehicles, limited road safety education, reckless motorcycle riding, weak enforcement of traffic laws and broader institutional shortcomings affecting road management.


To reduce future casualties, the organisation recommended introducing annual road safety awareness campaigns in educational institutions, providing government-supported training for teachers, including road safety topics in academic examinations, strengthening nationwide awareness programmes, removing unsafe vehicles from the roads, improving safety measures around schools and colleges, and strictly enforcing laws to prevent minors from riding motorcycles.

The RSF said that despite the public attention generated by the 2018 student-led movement, meaningful discipline has yet to be established in Bangladesh's road transport sector. The organisation stressed that stronger implementation of the Road Transport Act and long-term structural reforms remain essential to improving road safety and protecting the country's students.