Everyday due to mismanagement and anarchy in the roads, children are being killed at an unusual rate in road accidents across the country. However, this problem is not receiving the same degree of attention of the concerned authorities as it should. Recently, while providing data about casualties of children on roads, the Road Safety Foundation revealed that a total of 1647 children got killed in the last 28 months, mentioning that on average two children are dying every day on roads. Worryingly, about half of these children, 43.66 per cent, became victims on their way to and from educational institutions. The data also said that these numbers are increasing sharply with each passing year.
When the government is taking significant care of vaccinating children to protect them from lethal infectious diseases viz. measles, polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria and tuberculosis, why are the children’s deaths on roads not being taken seriously? Is it because that if children or their guardians became aware their lives could be saved?
In fact, it is not only children’s deaths, as a whole killing of people of all age groups in road accidents remains very dismayingly unattended. Even though the high number of killing in road accidents is not denied by the government, it is extremely worrying that it is yet to be acknowledged as a serious problem. That is the point of concern. If road accidents are taken as seriously by both the government and the people, the rate of fatal mishaps could decrease significantly.
Absence of children-friendly roads and transports, lack of awareness and unskilled and underage drivers on the steering are among the reasons for road accidents. Children love to ride bicycles. When there are lanes for the eco-friendly bicycle in all major cities of the world, there is no such thing in capital Dhaka. Here dedicated transports for school children are also absent.
The DNCC mayor recently said that for easing traffic jams as well as avoiding children’s death he would introduce school bus service. The sooner it is done, the better. Disciplining the chaotic traffic of vehicles that do not abide by the traffic rules everywhere, not just the capital can also reduce avoidable deaths on the roads.
