In our view police are not properly performing their duty on the Roads and Highways, they are not regularly checking vehicles’ fitness and whether the drivers are having valid driving license or they are using fake license.
Whether they are working sleepless night. In most cases, traffic police and highway patrol are compromising their responsibilities with regular toll collection from transport owners and workers keeping the highways vulnerable to regular accidents. Since the existing law is not enough to punish errant drivers and the owner can release vehicles from police custody paying bribes, highways remain death trap as ever before. But it can’t go unchecked. For every death, in our view highway police must be held accountable for it.
The Cabinet on Monday approved Road Transport Act 2017 with the provision that drivers should be eight grade passed and anybody to be found driving without valid driving license to be jailed for six months or fined upto Tk 50 thousands. Drivers using mobile phone while driving will be similarly punished.
But we must say enacting new laws will be useless like existing one if strict application of the laws does not create impact to reduce accidents. Drivers’ basic education is good but it does not provide the right answer to stop road accidents. What is important is basic training and motivation and proper punishment where negligence can be ascertained. Drivers must have respect for human life; police must ensure strict application of law without compromising their responsibility. Drivers in most cases run technically unfit vehicles as the owners being wealthy and politically powerful people routinely ignore traffic rules.
We know that strong trade union of transport workers and owners have almost given them the impunity to break the law and go escort free from facing accountability before a court of law. Powerful Ministers are backing such union activities and the recent transport strike last month in the country shows that they remain defiant to surrender before the rule of law. But regular death of so many people in roads and highways can’t be acceptable. We want to say that police administration must restore discipline and rule of law on road transport system. We must protect people at all cost.
