12 people killed in accident every hour in Bangladesh

The World Health Organisation lists 13 categories of accidents and injuries. These are suicide, road accidents, falling down, being cut with sharp implements, being injured by a falling object, bitten by an animal or insect, violence, drowning, injury from a machine or equipment, electric shock, accidental suffocation and accidental intake of poison. The survey collected information on all these issues.

In the survey, 299,216 persons of 70,000 families in towns and villages of 16 districts of the country were interviewed. The survey covered the period from March to June 2016.

They survey stated that every year over 108,000 died of various accidents. Of these, 45,000 were children under 18 years of age. The main causes of accidental death among all age groups were suicide, road accidents, drowning and falling. Suicide was more common among women.

Meanwhile, over 20 million people are injured in accidents every year, of which 242,000 result in permanent disability.

Endless parade of deaths

According to the survey, around 109,000 people die of various accidents and injuries every year in the country. That means, 298 die every day or, 12 every hour. The elderly mostly die by falling down.

The survey report says that every year over 45,000 children under 18 years of age die in the country, that means, 125 in a day. And 37 per cent of this age group die of drowning. Other main causes of death in this group are suicide, road accidents and electrification.

Among adults dying in accidents, the main causes are suicide, road accidents and falling down. Every day 170 persons die of these three reasons.

A similar survey was run in 2003. A comparison of the two surveys shows that in the case of under-18's, accidental deaths have increased other than in the case of drowning and animal bites. In 2003, every day there were 83 deaths. This is now 125. Deaths due to suicide, road accidents, electricity and falling, have increased.

Information on injuries remain concealed

Md Abu Taleb of CIPRB collected and analysed information in 2005 on accidents and injuries. He told Prothom Alo, “ Every day, every hour, somewhere in the country someone is in an accident. Sometimes it is because of one’s own fault, sometimes due to others’. Only a few of these incidents actually come to light.”

The survey took into consideration the accidents or injuries for which a person had to take medical treatment or had to abstain from attending school or work. That reveals that over 20 million persons are injured in a year, that is, 2287 persons are injured on the roads, outdoors, at home and at the work place every hour.

The most people are injured by falling. They fall from trees and high buildings, slip and fall on the streets, from buses, trains and rickshaws. They have to be treated for their injuries and their everyday life is disrupted. Every day over 16,000 people are injured in this manner.

There has been no national level discussion on this issue. Road accidents have been discussed in recent times, but not all road accidents reach the media. The road accidents which make news are normally about accidents involving many persons being injured at one time or many persons of the same family being hurt or if a child or a student is injured. However, many more persons are injured in accidents but these incidents remain unknown. Over 3.4 million people are injured in accidents every year, that is, over 9000 a day.

More people are injured by sharp implements than in road accidents. Around 12,500 persons are injured everyday by knives, cleavers, scythes, spades, shovels, blades and other sharp implements. That means over 4.5 million are injured in this manner every year.

While a huge number of people receive injuries, 91.9 per cent of these accidents are of medium degree where they are treated for their injuries and released or miss just one day from school or work. Serious accidents constitute 5.4 per cent of the mishaps where the victims stay for 10 or less days at hospital, but do not require surgery. And 1.4 per cent of the people are seriously injured in accidents and are rendered permanently disabled.

661 disabled per day

Every year 241,000 people become disabled due to accidents or injuries. That means 661 are disabled per day.

The most injuries are occurred by falling from heights. For about four decades now, the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) has been providing treatment and rehabilitation services for the paralysed. CRP executive director Md Shafiqul Islam told Prothom Alo, “Most of the patients who come here were paralysed after receiving serious injuries of the spine or back. According to our records, 40 per cent of the patients are injured when falling from heights. These include high trees, buildings, bridges and so on. Many patients come in the summer months when they fall from mango, lychee and jackfruit trees.”

These people fall and are paralysed. Around 83,000 people are disabled in this manner. The next cause of disability is road accidents, with over 80,000 disabled in this manner every year.

Source: Prothom Alo