Roundup: Eid-ul-Fitr celebration in Bangladesh marred by deadly car mishaps

What would have been a happy celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr, the Muslim world's most joyous event, turned out to be gruesome with scores of Bangladesh citizens killed in car crashes while others were victims of road rage.

At least three people, including Doctor Abdul Aziz and his daughter, were killed when a bus rammed into their private car in Bangladesh's Mymensing District on Monday.

For Engineer Jahidul Islam this year's Eid festival also turned into a nightmare. Jahidul Islam was traveling Saturday to their village from Dhaka with his wife Tanni Yeasmin and their two daughters to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr when their car fell into a water-filled ditch as the driver lost control of the vehicle.

While the couple managed to get out of their car with minor injuries their four-year-old daughter Tahia and her sister two- year old Tathoi died in the accident.

According to the couple, their two daughters fell asleep because of the long travel to their grandfather's village. They never woke up to see their grandfather.

Also on Wednesday three people were killed in separate road accidents.

Following repeated accidents at a particular portion of the highway, Bangladeshi Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader visited the spot Tuesday and assured people of setting up road divider there as early as possible.

Scores of other families also ended up mourning for lost relatives instead of enjoying the festivity to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Deadly road mishaps in Bangladesh jumped to horrific levels during this occasion after at least 17 people were killed on Sunday in a single accident.

As many as 92 people were killed in road crashes across the country during the last one week and of them, 70 reportedly died during Eid holidays. The crashes also left hundreds of people injured.

Majority of the victims were Eid passengers who were going homes or returning to workplaces.

There were head-on-collisions between passenger buses; vehicles had skidded off and fell into roadside ditches; some people met their death after being hit by tree branches as they rode on roof tops of buses and trains.

The gruesome graphics of some of these accidents were shown on television and published in newspapers almost every day.

These road mishaps happened despite sincere efforts of concerned government agencies to implement road safety measures.

One of the measures designed to prevent road mishaps was to ban auto-rickshaws from plying on highways.

Quader said there are too many three-wheelers plying on the highways these days and many of them have been involved in accidents, usually hit by heavier vehicles. "We've asked the auto- rickshaws to stay away from the highways," he said.

In a media report, during the Eid-ul-Fitr vacation, road accidents resulted in 67 deaths in 2014, 52 in 2013, 42 in 2012, 38 in 2011 and 63 in 2010.

Bangladesh has one of the highest fatality rates for road accidents in the world due mainly to shoddy highways, poorly maintained vehicles, violation of traffic rules by inept drivers, and lack of monitoring of national roads by the traffic department. Endi