A NEWS report in a national daily on Thursday said four people were killed and 10 others injured in a road accident on the busy Airport road on the previous day to remind the people and the government agencies concerned how life in the city is at danger at every place in a poorly managed road traffic system. The report said, the bus driver lost control over the steering and crashed the vehicle on a waiting CNG on the road side. The bus further skidded on the footpath to hit the pedestrians killing the four including the CNG passengers while critically injuring the others.
It is a common perception that since the airport road is a VIP road used by high profile government functionaries, diplomats and private individuals, besides being travelled on by several thousand out- bound and home coming air passengers, its safety must be of the highest order. But as it is very often reported, the ground reality is that the entire traffic system has been left to the vagaries of nature with traffic police seldom checking the fitness of vehicles or drivers’ behaviour while they drive vehicles recklessly. Drivers often speak on cell phones while on the steering or make hasty turns which end up in accidents. And it is a common scenario, not only in the Airport road, but also throughout the country which kills dozens of people and injures as many on a daily basis. The Airport road has slowly turn out to be a death trap and it is high time that the concerned authorities give due attention to tighten the regulatory belt and ensure safety to people in and around the road.
A study by the Accident Research Centre (ARC) of BUET shows, road accidents claim on average 12,000 lives annually, in addition to over 35,000 injuries in the country. Its loss to the economy stands at around 2 to 3 percent of the GDP. However the road accident casualty figure provided by police stands at a much lower 3,000 dead and a similar number of grievous injuries each year. There may be variations but there is no doubt that it is too high and its human and material costs are even higher.
We hold the view that the city traffic system must be harmonized and run efficiently to avoid accidents. Moreover, public awareness campaigns such as those carried out by ‘nirapad shorok chai’ must be at work round the year. Media reports often show the communication minister checking the fitness certificates of city transport and warning the wrong doers. It may be a public consumption campaign on his part but the message it puts out is that the system is not working. We hold the view that the minister must leave the work to traffic police and what he must do is to secure total compliance of the traffic rules and road discipline from them instead of running in the street corners. We also hold the view that the punishment regime of traffic rules violators must be stringent and the immunity of drivers who kills passengers on the way must go. Traffic police should also stop collecting bribes to allow running vehicles to ply without proper fitness and not allow drivers to operate without valid papers.
