Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
The road accidents are still unabated despite road safety pannel’s 111 recommendations’ for safety.
Apart from road safety awareness, the countrymen observed the National Road Safety Day on Tuesday.
At least 3,488 people were reportedly killed and 5863 injured in 3,131 road accidents till October 18 this year, while 29,315 people were killed in last four years, said the Accident Research Institute (ARI) of BUET.
Some 4,076 people were killed in 3,513 road crashes last year, up from 3,672 deaths from 2,917 road accidents in the previous year, says an ARI report, prepared based on media reports.
According to police, 2,635 people were killed in 2,609 road crashes last year, up from 2,513 deaths in 2,562 accidents in the previous year.
The experts and right bodies alleged that the road accidents have turned into ‘death traps’ for people during the travelling in the capital and other parts of the country.
The all types of steps to ensure road safety have almost gone in vain as the road crash related causalities still going on.
Earlier in April, the road safety panel submitted a report with 111 recommendations, including the creation of a “road safety authority” under the supervision of the Prime Minister.
On February 17, a road safety panel led by former Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan was created of the National Road Security Council. The report says that social awareness campaigns through films, billboards, screenings, bus tickets, and mass media, should be made mandatory and free of cost.
Shajahan Khan, has told the media, “The panel has inspected different places. We have discussed the things that need to be done immediately to curb road accidents. So far, we have managed to collect 111 recommendations.”
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that we ‘determined’ to achieve the SDG target of cutting 50 percent of the number of road traffic fatalities within the next decade under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s leadership.
“We are confident that the goal set by our Prime Minister will definitely be accomplished with the close cooperation and coordination by all the citizens of Bangladesh,” the minister said.
According to ministry’s another sources, whenever a fatal accident occurs, the road safety issue draws the attention of the people right away. They vent their anger on roads and social media, probe committees are formed, meetings held at different forums, recommendations made and directives given.
But the issue falls into oblivion within a few days. The number of casualties keeps on rising despite the fact that Bangladesh earlier had set a target to cut the number of deaths from road crashes by 50 percent by next year, they said.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) said 4.79 lakh vehicles without valid fitness certificates were running on roads.
On July 23, the High Court directed the owners of vehicles without valid fitness documents to collect fitness certificates in two months, starting from August 1.
BRTA statistics show that only 89,269 vehicles renewed their fitness certificates in August and September. However, the state-run organisation has no specific data about how many vehicles among the 4.79 lakh got their fitness certificated renewed in two months.
“We think a very few out of the 4.79 lakh unfit vehicles renewed their fitness certificates before the deadline. Among the 89,269 vehicles are those which might have renewed their certificates before their expiry,” a BRTA official said.
He said many among the 4.79 lakh vehicles might not be running now.
A total of 41.76 lakh vehicles, including 27.54 motorcycles, got registered with the BRTA till September this year since the country’s independence.
As per the law, all vehicles but motorcycles must have their fitness checked and certificates renewed by the BRTA every year. Therefore, 14.22 lakh vehicles are required to have their fitness certificates renewed annually.
But the BRTA data shows that only 5.75 lakh vehicles renewed their fitness certificates in the last fiscal year. A total of 1.40 lakh received fitness clearance in the first three months of the current fiscal year.
Mahbub-E-Rabbani, Director (road safety) of BRTA, said their mobile courts conduct drives regularly against unfit vehicles and police also work on the issue.
“Problems arose due to a huge number of unfit vehicles, but we are trying our best to check plying of such vehicles,” he said.
