Gazipur: At least 85 people were killed and 200 injured in different road accidents in Gazipur in 2016.

A majority of the victims were the passengers of three-wheelers like Leguna and pick-up vans.

The tendencies of drivers of overtaking, exceeding speed limit as well as the plying of overloaded vehicles have been the predominant causes, according to official records.

Though Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) conducts drives against three-wheelers and other unfit vehicles on highways to resist road accidents and create awareness, syndicates of unfit transport owners are still active.

Additional police super of Gazipur Highway Police Md Tareq Ahmed said the traffic police is lacking the manpower and vehicles to conduct patrols against the errant vehicles.

He also noted that there is no facility for weighing the overloaded trucks or detecting the speed of those vehicles.

The records also show that there are 18 accident-prone areas on Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Tangail highways of Gazipur.

Assistant superintendent police super of Gazipur police, Shakawat Hossain, blamed the absence of footover bridges in those areas as the main cause for the accidents.

There are many industrial factories on both sides of the highway between Tongi and Chandna and thousands of workers cross the highway at least four times a day, he noted.