FREQUENT fatal road accidents on the country’s national highways continuously render people to dead and amputee by violating the existing laws and different directives. The movement of unregistered vehicles, including three-wheelers, absence of service lanes and highway side infrastructures and kitchen markets are responsible for the rampant accidents. The lack of institutional capacity and accountability and enforcement of laws and regulations by the authorities concerned are also blamed for the situation.
The head of the government earlier in 2018 gave some directives to ensure drivers’ rest every five hours, alternative drivers for long-distance transports and use of seatbelts while travelling. Before that, the High Court in 2015 issued a directive to the Road Transport Ministry and the police issued to keep unfit motor vehicles off the roads across the country. Lastly, a committee came up with 111 recommendations to make traffic movement in order and the number of accidents reduced. Some of these recommendations related to the national highways include removal of highway-side kitchen markets, infrastructures and shops, the introduction of service roads and grade separation for slow-moving vehicles, setting up of bus stoppages and bay areas and passenger shades, setting speed limit in the accident-prone areas, keeping the connection points between national highways and feeder roads in check, ensuring regular inspections of black spots on national highways and safety measures to reduce accidents, building trauma centres and fire service stations at strategic places and ensuring BRTC bus and truck services at short distances to facilitate local passengers.
However, experts said the institutions concerned do not have the capacity and they lacked the coordination to check road violations of directives and laws. Strict implementation of the existing laws could ensure order on highways and prevent accidents. However, the directives are highly neglected that responsible for at least 5,431 deaths in 4,735 road accidents in 2020. Study shows that 38.24 per cent of all accidents occurred on national highways, while a major reason behind these is the movement of slow-moving vehicles on highways. The nation-wide unprecedented movement to stop road accidents in 2018 prompted politicians to pledge to take necessary actions, but nothing worked here for lack of strong willpower of the government and vested quarters’ interest. How far the nation will allow the national highways as national death ways? The government must answer.
