Road accidents have become a regular thing every day. Although roads and bridges are modern up to the village level, accidents have increased several times. Road accidents are not possible at all. Although there is development everywhere, there is no development in road safety.
Recently two terrible accidents happened on the return journey to Dhaka during Eid. Fourteen people were killed and three injured in a head-on collision between a passenger bus and a pickup in Faridpur. 5 of the dead are from the same family. The tragic accident took place at Tentultala in Kanaipur of Faridpur Sadar Upazila on the Dhaka-Khulna highway. The accident happened on April 16 after Eid (April 11). Another accident took place in Jhalakathi on 17th April. Here too 14 people were killed. 7 of them are from the same family. Jhalkathi-Rajapur road is upazila link road. According to the information of the road department, the maximum speed of vehicles on this road, which is 18 to 22 feet wide, is 40 to 60 kilometers per hour. The truck hit there at a speed of more than 80 km. There, CCTV footage shows a small truck slowly moving after paying the toll. Right behind him is a white private car and two three-wheelers carrying passengers. The time is half past noon. The first truck with moving furniture tolls ahead. The toll point workers are moving towards the standing private car. Just then, a cement-laden truck running like a monster hit from behind and crushed two three-wheelers and a private car. One passenger jumped out of the three-wheeler on the left side of the road, but the rest were crushed by the wheels of the truck. Almost all of the 14 people killed in the tragic road accident at Gabkhan toll point in Jhalkathi had to be rescued by cutting the crushed cars and three-wheelers. Two children were sleeping inside the crumpled private car. Two mothers were holding them. There was no way to understand that no one was alive. The bodies of these 4 people, including 7 people from the same family, were taken out one by one from the wrecked car.
How many more lives will be lost, the continuous procession of death will stop on the road. Can the march of death on the road be prevented?
Since 2010, the government has spent eight years enacting the accident law. Of these, he was drafted four times. So the government has made the strict law to make the students happy? Now there is no student movement. But there is pressure from the transport owners and workers on the government. So it has been relaxed by amending various sections of the law. Due to which the drivers are easily passing through the loopholes of the law. So is not the main goal to ensure safe roads through the law?
Actor Ilyas Kanchan, founder of Safer Roads Chai (Nischa), has been agitating for safer roads for many years. But nothing is working. A review of accidents shows that driver negligence is one of the major factors in accidents along with inefficiency. Their casualty numbers are also alarming.
On July 29, 2018, two students of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment School and College were killed when a bus ran over them on the airport road in front of Kurmitola General Hospital in the capital. First, the students of that school entered the field. Later this movement spread across the country including Dhaka to demand safe roads. After six years, the picture of death due to road accidents in the country has not changed but road accidents have increased more than before. Also, due to lack of proper enforcement of traffic laws, road accidents are increasing by leaps and bounds. Due to the 2.4 million unskilled and unlicensed drivers on the roads and highways, accidents are not being curbed. Every day many fresh lives are flowing on the road. The death march is long.
According to Yatri Kalyan Samiti, 3 thousand 862 accidents occurred in the whole country including the capital during the Eid journey (Eidul Fitr and Eidul Azaha) in 8 years from 2016 to 2023, where 4 thousand 475 people were killed and 11 thousand 695 were injured.
Road accident experts and passenger welfare officials say that although mega projects have been taken for road development, accidents have not stopped. On the contrary, as accidents are increasing year by year, so are the number of deaths and injuries. Especially during Eid, accidents are increasing as transport related owners, drivers and workers do not pay attention to any rules. Apart from this, due to lack of vigilance, unfit vehicles, unskilled drivers, influence of transport officials and lack of exemplary punishment, road deaths are not being stopped despite many initiatives.
Motorcycles are currently the most affected by accidents. In this year alone, 203 people were killed and 166 injured in 181 motorcycle accidents. In March alone, 565 people were killed and 1,228 injured in 552 road accidents across the country including the capital. In addition, 612 people were killed and 1 thousand 331 injured in a total of 597 accidents on roads, railways and waterways. Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, Secretary General of Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association, gave this information in a recent press release. They prepared this report by monitoring the news of road, rail and waterway accidents published in the national, regional and online newspapers of the country.
The report also said that 32.78 percent of total accidents and 35.92 percent of fatalities and 13.51 percent of injuries occurred on motorcycles. During the same period, 31 people were killed and 86 injured in 38 railway accidents. 16 people were killed and 17 injured in seven accidents on the waterway. 612 people were killed and 1 thousand 331 people were injured in a total of 597 accidents on roads, railways and waterways.
Defective vehicles, reckless speeding, inefficiency and physical and mental illness of drivers, non-fixed pay and working hours and slow speeding of vehicles on highways. Also responsible for the accidents are reckless motorcycling by the youth, general ignorance of and disregard for traffic laws, poor traffic management, BRTA’s lack of capacity and extortion in the public transport sector.
The demand for a strict law to ensure road safety and bring order to the roads is long overdue. Six years ago on July 29, 2018, the issue came to the fore again when students took to the field demanding safe roads. On September 20 of that year, the government passed a law in the parliament containing provisions for severe punishment in the face of student demands. Almost 7 years have passed since then, but the law is still not fully implemented. The government has just announced various measures to deal with the situation. It is bound only by paper. But these were never implemented effectively. Even though a new law titled Road Transport Act has been enacted, some provisions have been relaxed in its implementation. There are various topics like death, driver’s license etc.
On the one hand there is no effective action to deal with the accidents that have occurred, on the other hand there is no well-planned initiative for the future. I don’t see the focus of those who are supposed to work on it. Due to bureaucratic complications, the transport sector is becoming uncontrollably chaotic. It is very important to bring the muscular transport syndicate into a system to deal with this situation. Although many recommendations have been given to identify the causes of road accidents, they have remained on paper but nothing has been done in reality. Accidents and loss of lives will never stop if the recommendations are not implemented.
Skilled drivers are prepared to overcome this situation, they can’t drive on the road. Overtaking is not allowed. Proper enforcement of traffic laws, creation of separate roads (service lanes) for low-speed vehicles on highways, etc. should be taken. The government must have the political will to implement these. Only then it is possible to control accidents on the road.
Author: Journalist and columnist
