THE fellow students mourn. Not the fellows only, but almost the whole nation was gripped in shock over the loss of three meritorious students of Rajshahi College. They were killed, but unfortunately the authority showed the same apathy like before keeping silent over their responsibility. The New Nation on Monday reported that reckless driving claimed lives of three college girls and caused severe injuries to 30 others in Rajshahi.
This is yet another incident of road crash which added to the list of the unabated killing spree of drivers in the last 10 days including the tragic death of noted journalist Jaglul Ahmed Chowdhury and an Islamic University student in Kushtia. Besides, newspaper headlines of the recent days have too often grabbed the news of horrific road accidents across the country. A passerby was killed after being run over by a bus at Mohakhali in the capital on Saturday this week. A truck driver was killed and two more people were injured in a head-on collision between two trucks in the Purana Paltan area of the city on Wednesday last. A private university student died on Nov 30 pressed between two buses in Dhaka’s Malibagh area. Two BGB men were killed as a truck hit their motorcycle on the Dhaka-Dinajpur highway in Phulbari upazila of Dinajpur on Nov 28. On Nov 25, an army man died after being hit by a speeding bus in Mirpur of Dhaka. These were incidents which only got the attention of the newsmen. But experts think, many more have occurred but have not been publicized through the media outlets.
Though, we have been trying repeatedly to draw the attention of the authority concerned to stop the trend of tragic accidents that traumatize not only urban life, but the rural ones also. It has now become a social concern. The economy is also incurring a huge loss due to road mishaps over the years. A World Bank reports said, the annual economic wastage caused by traffic accidents is estimated to be in the order of 2 to 3 percent of GDP. Each year, there are at least 3,000 fatalities and 3,000 grievous and around 3500 minor injuries of road accidents on Bangladesh roads, as per police records. Other sources estimated the fatalities as high as from 12,000 to 20,000 per year. Thus, the safety problem is very severe by international standards with some 60 to 150 fatalities per 10,000 motor vehicles in Bangladesh compared to around 25, 16, 2 and 1.4 in India, Sri Lanka, the US and UK respectively.
If the bus and truck drivers are to be blamed for reckless driving and killing people freely, then why do the people maintain a Ministry, a Minister and other authorities? They must be held answerable for their incompetence. The wrong persons are appointed as drivers because they have been issued licences. The drivers do not care to observe laws of the roads. Almost everyday persons lose their lives in road accidents. The Minister is not there to walk about and talk, but for showing his own competence to make roads safe who use these.
