Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Epaper

The success of road safety movement will remain elusive!

Published : Sunday, 28 November, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 831
Md Zillur Rahaman
Students are again protesting, blocking roads and demanding road safety. It has started when a student of Notre Dame College named Naeem Hasan was killed in a collision with a garbage truck of Dhaka South City Corporation at Gulistan in the capital. The tragic accident took place on November 24. Naeem was seriously injured and he was instantly taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he was pronounced dead at the scene.

In just one day after the above incident, Ahsan Kabir Khan, a computer operator of Daily Sangbad, was hit by a garbage truck of the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) just opposite of Bashundhara City Complex in the capital. According to eyewitnesses, the DNCC garbage truck was stuck with all the other vehicles. Pulls a motorcycle in the signal just without the signal and Mr Khan, who was on a motorcycle, fell on the spot. He was on the back of the bike, the wheel of the car went over his head and he died on the spot.

Following the death of Naeem Hassan, a meritorious student of Notre Dame College, students of various schools and colleges across the city have been blocking roads and protesting demanding road safety. The agitating students are saying that discipline should be restored on the road and need to ensure safe roads. The killers must face a speedy trial.

However, before that, in 2018, there was a massive movement from July 29 to August 8 demanding road safety and effective road security across the country. Rajib and Dia, two students of Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College, were killed then and 10 others were injured when two speeding buses collided on the airport road in Dhaka on July 29. The protest later spread across the country and the students took to the streets demanding nine points.

In fact, the road transport system in Bangladesh is very chaotic and prone to accidents, which is clearly visible in the bus services of the capital Dhaka. From 2015 to July 2018, 25,000 people were killed and about 62,000 injured in road accidents across the country. According to a research conducted by BUET, 53% of these road accidents are due to speeding; 37% due to reckless behaviour of the driver and the remaining 10% due to vehicle defects and environment.

According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, the number of legal vehicles operating in the country in 2018 was 35 lakh 42 thousand, but the number of valid licensed drivers is only 26 lakh 40 thousand, i.e., about 9 lakh vehicles are driven by unlicensed drivers. In addition, the number of vehicles without fitness in the country is 4 lakh 99 thousand. Due to these reasons, road accidents continue to increase.

The cabinet meeting on June 5, 2017 decided to observe October 22 as National Road Safety Day. Since then the day has been celebrated nationally. Every year people demand to make the roads and highways of the country safe through the observance of this day. However, the question is, are the people getting any benefit? How safe we have made the road! We have heard of various steps being taken by the government to prevent accidents. But the accident has not decreased and reckless driving has not stopped. This means there are many flaws in the measures taken to prevent accidents or to make them effective.

The rate of road accidents is very high in the country. According to a statistics, 80 per cent of road accidents are caused by non-stop driving, speeding and carelessness of the driver. The rule to take rest after four or five hours of continuous driving is not being followrd. As a result, when a tired driver drives a car, the risk of an accident is naturally higher. This is mainly due to the excessive business attitude of the bus owners. The government needs strict surveillance to curb this trend.

In an interview with the BBC Bangla in September 2016, a bus driver blamed sleep of the drivers for most of the road accidents in Bangladesh. He said that the drivers are very tired due to working 24 hours a day. Drivers also get tired due to the hot air of the engine and the noise from outside and around. Moreover, after being on duty all night, they have to drive again the next morning. According to him, if the driver's duty is fixed at a maximum of 12 hours or less, then the number of accidents will be greatly reduced.

Bangladesh Jatrikalyan Samiti works on road safety, security and passengers' welfare. The organization has identified nine causes for road accidents, including reckless speeding. Notable among these are reckless speed of vehicles, unfit vehicles and carrying passengers in freight vehicles, disobeying the decision to stop freight vehicles, driving with incompetent drivers and helpers. The organization also made 12 recommendations to reduce accidents. Recommendations include stopping extra fares, training of drivers, banning motorcycles during Eid, maintaining monitoring activities after Eid, ensuring driver-worker pay-bonuses and working hours, and building the National Road Safety Council into effective institutions.

People have long demanded the enactment of road transport law to prevent accidents. The law has been passed but it is not being implemented properly. There is no precedent for severe punishment for those responsible for the accident. Even Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself gave six point instructions in June 2018. Instructions are to keep alternate drivers in long-distance vehicles, not to drive a driver for more than five hours, to arrange training for the driver and his assistant, to set up service centres or restrooms on the side of the road at certain distances, to stop irregularly or to obey signals, Ensure the use of zebra crossings and fastening of seatbelts for drivers and passengers.

Prime minister assigned three ministers to ensure that these directives are implemented. Unfortunately, they were not properly implemented.
 

Road safety is a very important national issue. However, the matter is not getting much importance from the authority concerned, due to which the number of accidents is not decreasing. The demands of the victims, the six-point directive of the Prime Minister, restoration of discipline in the road transport sector and the recommendations of the relevant committee on accident control need to be implemented expeditiously. Road transport laws need to be properly implemented. If this is not done, there will be no greatness in celebrating 'National Road Safety Day' every year. If road accident repeatedly occurs, student movement will continue to organise for safe roads.
The writer is a banker
and freelance columnist







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