An occasion of great festivity turned into a grave tragedy when the microbus carrying the groom and others of the party recklessly rammed by speedy bus coming from opposite direction in Munshiganj on Friday. As their microbus reached Shoalghar area of Munshiganj’s Srinagar Upazila, the killer bus hit head-on with it, leaving at least nine, including father of groom dead on the spot. The witnesses blamed reckless driving for the accident on the Dhaka-Mawa Highway.
The groom-carrying microbus was about a kilometre away when it was hit by the bus, and the happiness turned into grief in a matter of moments. The accident left 11 others injured. The tragic accident happened when the entire nation was in the grief of transport workers’ unethical work abstention and strike called in protest of newly introduced transport laws provisioning tougher actions against Traffic Law violations and accident. In response to protests brought by students in 2018, the government promised to enact tough laws for brining discipline in roads. However, the transport owners and workers asked for inaction of the law.
Road accident has become a major public health concern resulting in over 21,000 fatalities each year. These deaths frequently occur among pedestrians and passengers of light vehicles. This results in high costs of health and social care, and lost productivity due to premature death and disability. The number of death in road accidents is increasing every day.
Yet the transport workers are unwilling to curb the death row and the government cannot but submit before their will for the organized power of transport workers and their political linkage. No civilized country can let the unruliness for year after year.
