Saturday | 11 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Saturday | 11 January 2025 | Epaper

Death on roads: An acute crisis at present

Published : Sunday, 2 July, 2017 at 12:00 AM  Count : 517
Mir Abdul Alim
At least 79 people have died in road accidents within 6 days ahead of this Eid.  More than two hundred people have seriously been wounded. A survey says that 70 per cent people die in road accidents while other 30 per cent people are killed by terrorists! The crisis is becoming acute and the State must focus to put an end to this crisis.  
The government extremely failed in preventing road accidents. It is estimated that 30 per cent people die in road accidents every day. According to the survey of BTRA, the number of death in road accident is 16 a day and 5,760 in every year.
The accidents are happening because of the reckless tendency of driving and overtaking. According to the Road Accident Research Institution (RARI) of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), a car tries to overtake another in every minute on average on the highways. This tendency of overtaking creates the risk of accidents. To prevent this there are no effective steps on the highways.
Special cameras should be set up on the highways to control reckless movements. It is possible to save many people's lives by doing this at a low cost. On average, 2000 people in the last 3 years have died in road accidents as to a government survey.
According to the survey of the Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association, 4,312 accidents took place only in 2016. In those accidents 6055 people died. About 1600 people were wounded. More than 8000 people died in 2015. According to the World Bank website, 12 thousand people die in road accidents in Bangladesh every year. Such death-procession of road accidents is perhaps frequent news, yet no effective solution has been put forward.
Bangladesh is in the 14th position in the world regarding road accidents. Though the driver of a vehicle is detained in case of accidents, most of the time he is not given any punishment. The problem of traffic management, the complexity in applying the law and the lack of planning in emergency management are responsible behind the increase of accidents.
Does the corresponding authority plan for any workshops or training regarding the traffic rules properly? Otherwise, we can undoubtedly say that anyone can die anytime, or get crippled falling a victim to a road accident.
Few days ago, it was said in a report that the number of the valid transports is more than 13 lac in the country. But the number of the valid drivers is only 8 lac. The licenses of those to whom the rest of the transports have been handed over for driving are not valid. Even many drivers have multiple licenses.
It is seen in a research that 100 terrible accidents take place out of every 10 thousand motorcars. But according to the statistic of advanced countries, maximum 3.5 per cent accidents occur in 1 thousand motorcars.
On the other hand, 163 fall victims to accidents out of every 1 thousand vehicles in our country. It is also seen in the Accident Technology Research Institute (ATRI) of BUET that more than 12 thousand people die in road accidents every year!
There are 16 lac registered vehicles in the country, but the licensed drivers are only 10 lac. There is a shortage -- a total of 4 lacs drivers. So, they need to be trained on driving and also need licenses.
Otherwise, our lives will thus drop down ungrudgingly in continuation.

The writer is Chairman, Al-Rafi Hospital Ltd, and columnist





LATEST NEWS
MOST READ
Also read
God's oppressed children
Listening to Joy - the civilized trailblazer
Why has Latin America turned away from the left?
Safeguarding banking services growth in Bangladesh
Time for an inclusive quality education
Erdogan subjected Turkey to a year of cynical doublespeak
A tale of two valleys
The economists who stole Christmas
Editor : Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury
Published by the Editor on behalf of the Observer Ltd. from Globe Printers, 24/A, New Eskaton Road, Ramna, Dhaka.
Editorial, News and Commercial Offices : Aziz Bhaban (2nd floor), 93, Motijheel C/A, Dhaka-1000.
Phone: PABX- 41053001-06; Online: 41053014; Advertisement: 41053012.
E-mail: district@dailyobserverbd.com, news©dailyobserverbd.com, advertisement©dailyobserverbd.com, For Online Edition: mailobserverbd©gmail.com
🔝
close