A 10-year boy, Ridoy, was killed on Thursday when a bus ran over him while he was selling newspapers on Badda Link road the city.
The poor boy was knocked down by a bus of Dibanishi Paribahan at about 7:30am while he was trying get onto the bus to sell newspapers to the passengers.
The arrested bus driver, Abdul Aziz, said he failed to break the vehicle while the
boy suddenly come in front of the bus.
The hawker’s mother, Sayera Begum, said that Ridoy, who lived at Karail Slam in Mahakhali, was the only earning member of his family and spent most of his income for the treatment of his ailing father, Aslamuddin, who lived in Narsingdi.
Police arrested the driver and seized the bus, witnesses said.
A case was filed in this connection and the body of the victim was sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, police investigation officer Babul Hossain Bhuiyan said.
Road accidents became rampant in the city and elsewhere in the country in recent times.
In 2009, the Accident Monitoring Cell of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority recorded 3,381 road traffic accidents across the country that caused 2,958 deaths and 2,223 serious injuries.
QASM Zakaria Islam, data specialist of the Accident Research Institute of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, earlier told New Age that at least 54 per cent of road accident victims were pedestrians, and the main reason for the accidents was reckless driving, especially by the bus drivers.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police records said in 2.17 per cent cases the pedestrians were responsible for being victim of road accidents while the drivers were responsible for 97.82 per cent cases.
According to records, 97.88 cases are filed in connection with reckless driving on an average a day.
Ekram Ahmed, convener of the Families United Against Road Accidents, a platform of some family members of accident victims, stressed on creating awareness among both drivers and pedestrians to avoid fatal accidents.
