Not only in Bangladesh, road accidents are a daily occurrence all over the world. However, depending on the level of civility and law enforcement, the accident rate is lower or higher depending on the country. According to the World Health Organization, an average of 55 people die in road accidents in Bangladesh every day. And the research of Bangladesh Research Institute says that 12 thousand people are killed and 35 thousand injured in road accidents in the country every year. There are road transport laws and there is enough campaigning. But why road accidents and road deaths are not decreasing. In this background, I strongly believe that the new ‘Road Transport Act’ will play a major role in restoring order on the roads if the rules are more stringent. Road accidents, especially motorcycle accidents, are one of the leading causes of death in Bangladesh. Road deaths have increased manifold in the last 3 decades. Lawyers, sociologists, politicians and legislators are scrambling to figure out how to reduce road accidents. Meanwhile, with an accident and loss of life, the movement of bereaved and conscious citizens started on the streets.
On July 29, 2018, two students of a school were killed by a bus on the capital’s Airport road. The incident led to a nationwide student movement. Where we saw people being taught by young students how to obey the traffic laws of the road. The Seva students’ movement took the form of a social movement. The countrymen also declared solidarity with this movement. In order to prevent road accidents, they imposed many logical conditions and the government accepted the students’ conditions under a lot of compulsion.
Laws are largely governed by statutory interpretations, rules. Rules are necessary to clarify the ambiguities of law. For that reason, road transport rules have been formulated in 2022. As a student of law, an attempt to present basic knowledge and public awareness in the light of the new road laws and rules in the light of social aspects to prevent road accidents will be highlighted in this writing. This Road Transport Act-2018 was enacted by repealing the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1983 (Ordinance No. LV of 1983) and after many discussions with stakeholders, the Act came into force on 1st November 2019.
126 sections, 58 definitions and 14 new provisions have been added in the new Roads Act 2018. Among these the most significant provisions are-
1) Intentional killing by driving on the road is punishable by death under section 302.
2) Driving recklessly on the road or causing an accident as a result of competition shall be punished with imprisonment for three years or with a fine of three lakh rupees or with both. The court may order payment of all or part of the fine to the aggrieved person.
3) If a person is seriously injured or killed in a motor vehicle accident, the driver is punished with a maximum imprisonment of five years and a maximum fine of five lakh rupees.
4) Imprisonment of six months or fine of Tk 25 thousand or both for driving motor vehicle or public transport without driving license.
5) Driving a motor vehicle without registration is punishable by imprisonment of six months and a fine of up to fifty thousand rupees.
6) Use and display of fake registration number is punishable with imprisonment of six months to two years or fine of one lakh to five lakh rupees.
7) Imprisonment of six months or fine of Tk 25 thousand or both for driving dangerous motor vehicle without fitness.
8) Disobeying the traffic signal will be punished with imprisonment of one month or fine of 10 thousand taka or both.
9) If the motor vehicle is not parked in the right place or if passengers or goods are not transferred in the designated place, a fine of five thousand rupees will be imposed.
10) One month imprisonment and a fine of Tk 25,000 have been provided for talking on a mobile phone while driving.
11) Every time a driver breaks the law his points will be deducted and at some point the license will be cancelled.
12) Demanding or charging more than the prescribed fare in public transport will be punished with imprisonment of one month or a fine of Tk 10 thousand or both.
13) According to the law, to get a driving license, the driver must pass class VIII and the driver’s assistant must pass class V. Earlier no educational qualification was required.
14) Must be at least 18 years of age to drive. This provision was there before. Apart from this, if any other passenger sits in the reserved seat, the provision of one month imprisonment, fine or both has been made. If a foreign national violates the provisions of section 29 regarding non-acceptance of motor vehicle/public transport route permit of his country on entering Bangladesh, he will be punished with a maximum fine of Tk 30,000.
All offenses except Section 3 offenses are bailable under the new Traffic Act. The quantum of punishment is the same as before, though the quantum of fine has been fixed higher. If people are a little aware, they will not have to pay the fine. For example: driving with a helmet or obeying traffic signals or having a vehicle license does not require any fine. So regardless of whether the fine is high or low, the law abiding citizen should be a conscious citizen. Section 114 of the new Act states that the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act No. 1898) shall apply in the case of investigation, trial appeal etc. of offenses under this Act.
Section 117 of the new Roads Act deals with cognizability, bailability and bailability of offences. However, unless otherwise stated in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act No. 1898), all offenses committed under this Act are cognizable and all offenses except those committed under Sections 84, 98 and 105 of this Act are bailable. ). And the offenses under Sections 66, 72, 79, 87, 89 and 92 of this Act shall be compoundable. But no one below the rank of Judicial Magistrate, Additional Superintendent of Police can compromise. Section 84 of the Act provides for imprisonment for three years or a fine of one to three lakh taka for changing the shape of a vehicle. In addition to section 84, cases of injuries caused by reckless driving (section 98), death on the road (section 105) have been made ineligible for bail in this law. Although non-bailable, the amount of punishment in the said sections can hardly be said. Drivers have nothing to fear for that.
Intentional killing by driving on the road is punishable by death under Section 302. According to the law, if someone dies in an accident, there will be a case of murder against the driver, many people related to transportation and investigation cannot accept this fact. Because they think car accident is a divine event. Here the provision of death penalty is a very severe punishment. If it does, no one will drive and those who do will be discouraged.
The bottom line is that the Road Transport Act is not in any way against motorists but rather to create caution and awareness for those who do not obey the law. Intentional killing by driving on the road will be a case of murder under section 302 but it is subject to investigation. The complainant has to prove that the killing was intentional or unintentional. Whoever has the burden of proving this fact will have to struggle to prove the murder. In most cases the killing will not be proved to be premeditated. However, the issue of compensation for killing has been canceled in the current law.
In the now repealed/repealed Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1983, any person injured/killed/damaged in a road accident could file a suit for financial compensation in the Claims Tribunal (Claims Tribunal) under the District Judge of Bangladesh under the provisions of Section-128.
The amount of this ‘pecuniary compensation’ was unspecified (unliquidated damages), that is, the court concerned had jurisdiction to determine the amount of compensation on the basis of each individual accident caused by negligence.
Filmmaker late Tarek Masood and his family in 2012 filed a claim for ‘financial compensation’ in this ‘Claims Tribunal’ formed under Section 128 of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance-1983 in a road accident and received 4 crore 61 lakh 75 thousand 452 rupees compensation with the intervention of the High Court! Surprisingly, the newly introduced Road Transport Act has abolished this provision of filing a claim in the Claims Tribunal or court for road accident compensation!
Worryingly, the new law has taken away the jurisdiction of the courts to entertain road accident compensation claims. The entire process of claiming compensation has been made ‘extra-judicial’ and bureaucratic. Aggrieved victims have been entrusted with the Board of Trustees by blocking legal remedies in court, making the compensation claim process bureaucratic, complex and time-consuming.
After revising the schedule of Mobile Court Act-2009 and reinstating the relevant section of the Road Transport Act, only a few places in the capital have been reported to operate mobile courts. But it is not enough. To increase the acceptability of mobile court trial, error free trial system should be made. Because, in various laws, the mobile court trial has been widely criticized as it does not conform to the laws and regulations. Obeying traffic signals and wearing a helmet doesn’t take university education to learn. Similarly, if you don’t obey the traffic signal or don’t wear a helmet, you will have to pay a fine of 10,000 taka. It is necessary to make the nation civilized, not by fear. Traffic signals in school textbooks, what is the benefit of wearing a helmet, what happens when driving in the opposite direction, the disadvantages of illegal parking, what are the advantages and disadvantages of wearing a seat belt in a car, not driving drunk and recklessly, what are the benefits of not talking on mobile phones while driving, etc. to attach
Like the Japanese, there should be a system of teaching to obey traffic laws from childhood. It will be difficult for everyone to comply with such a beautiful traffic law in just a week or a year. But I am an optimistic citizen. The government has already taken various programs to raise awareness about this law and will continue to do so. Various non-governmental organizations and organizations, NGOs as well as civil society and actor Ilyas Kanchan led Safe Road Chai (Nischa) are always working for safe roads. Moreover, if every conscious citizen of the country takes an initiative with the government and various institutions to increase awareness about the law, then the rate of knowing and obeying the traffic law in the country will increase and road accidents will also decrease. From families to the state, everyone must work together to obey traffic laws. Law enforcement needs to be stricter and people need to be aware on the roads. Only then will order return to the road.
Muhammad Tajul Islam: Columnist and legal researcher
