Joynal Abedin Khan :
Series of deaths in road accidents after the Eid-ul-Fitr have raised of lots questions.
So far, 235 people died and more than 400 were injured in different road accidents in last week.
Experts have identified at least 20 causes of accidents on roads and highways (R&H) across the country.
These are reckless driving, over speed, over taking tendency unskilled drivers, plying of unfit vehicles, narrowness of roads, black spots and lack of dividers and zebra crossings on highways are blame for accidents.
“Invalid and unguarded level crossings and lack of proper monitoring on highways and city streets also contributed to fatal road accidents in the recent times,” they claimed.
They further demanded that roadside markets, unauthorized bus stands, and ticket counters, illegal parking and high speed on the highways are also responsible for the roads crash.
The experts said that Roads and Bridges Ministry, Railway Ministry, Shipping Ministry, Department of Roads and Highways, National Roads Safety Council, Highway Police and other law enforcing agencies have faced to work on reduce of accidents.
They also blamed the lack of public for accidents.
In the study released in April, Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, a commuters’ association, found that 8971 people had died and more than 31,000 were injured in 5,991 road accidents across the country in 2014. But Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) report has found the death figure 2,500.
According to BRTA report, government has approved 13 lakh driving licenses against 21 lakh valid vehicles and 29 lakh drivers need for the commercial transports. Only 41 vehicles inspectors are prevailing across the country under BRTA which is very insufficient to the necessary.
According to the Accident Research Institute (ARI) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), around 232 spots have been identified along the highways as accident prone ‘black spots’ In 2010, but only eleven spots along the Dhaka-Aricha highway have been reshaped.
Roads and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said, “We have reconstructed 11 black spots on the Dhaka-Arircha Highway at the cost of Tk 21 crore that decreased 95% road accidents on the route and Tk 165 crore had got for reappearing of 144 black spots in different highways to check road accidents. Road accident will come to half of the present figure by 2020, the minister said.
“Government has filed 6,150 cases against fitless vehicles, fined Tk 47,50,00 for lack of certificates, 262 cars were dumped and 49 drivers were sent to jail in the last year” the minister claimed.
Professor Shamsul Huq, former Director, Accident Research Institute (ARI) of B UET, told The New Nation that If accidents are to be reduced, the fitness of both roads and vehicles has to be ensured, drivers’ skills must be improved and public awareness must be increased.
“The drivers’ responsibility is to drive vehicles cautiously. Instead of keeping this in mind, they are driving recklessly. As a result road accident has become a common phenomenon in the country. Though drivers are mostly liable for road accident, vehicles also must be fit for driving on road,” he said.
“Lack of proper monitoring by the government and concerned bodies on vehicles and roads and highways are blame for fatal road accidents,” the professor said.
Dr Shamsul Huq said reckless driving is the cause of 91 percent of traffic accidents.
“We have submitted some proposals to the government to cut the number of accidents. If the government implement the proposals, road casualties are sure to fall,” he said.
Ilias Kanchan, veteran cine-actor and founder-chairman of Nirapad Sarak Chai (NISCHA) that works for preventing accident, said most of the accidents took place for reckless driving.
He said that the bus operators should consider drivers as humans, not robots.
“What were the law-enforcers were doing when more than 30,000 unfit vehicles were plying highways during the festival?” he posed the question.
He said that government should establish sufficient driving centre across the country as people take training from these easily. BRTA director (enforcement) Bijoy Bhushan Paul said that the authority had already instructed and published advertisement to remove vehicles like Nasiman and Kariman from highways. Contacted, Deputy Inspector-General of Highway Police Mallick Faqrul Islam said his department had started seizure of unfit and unauthorised vehicles.
The authorities concerned and experts have taken 96-point proposals in December to check roads accidents, but around all of them still are unimplemented.
