If the government shows a quarter of the response to road accidents as it gives to contain the usual infectious diseases, every year thousands of lives on the roads could be saved. The figure of casualties from road accidents is no less than the deaths by serious infectious diseases. The case of Covid-19 pandemic is a big one and so far in Bangladesh, a total of 29,262 (July 24) people died due to the disease in a period of about two years and four months. According to the Bangladesh Road Safety Foundation’s (RSF) annual report, at least 11,715 people died in two years 2020-2021 because of road accidents. There are also an equal number of people who suffered great injuries or are maimed for life. But compared to the government response to Covid-19, road accidents have received no response at all.
We really fail to understand why the government does not give the same kind of urgency to contain road accidents. Is it because road accidents occur due to the faults of the people involved with the accidents, or because the government thinks that if people become aware they could avoid them? In either case, the government must also take the blame in every accident. If the existing callous approach to accidents is replaced by a vigorous and sustained response to the problem adopting certain measures, fatal road accidents will surely decrease greatly.
On the highways, drivers do not follow the traffic rules; there are inept drivers and sometimes drunken ones are spotted, absence of proper patrolling by the highway police, nonexistence of traffic signals and lights in the night, plying of faulty vehicles and faulty construction of road and highways, in all these anomalies the government has its share of the blame. If accidents on the roads and highways sometimes appear to be murderous, the government also must be the complicit partners in these crimes.
As we were writing this piece (Sunday noon), the news of a tragic accident came to us from the highway in Tangail where a bus and a truck collided head-on against each other leaving the drivers of both the vehicles dead instantly. As the initial report came, the vehicles were running at a very high speed towards each other and the drivers could not control themselves. This is an accident. But when we find that this kind of frontal collision between vehicles is taking place on the highways one after another, we conclude that the driving licenses went to the wrong hands. It has been often alleged that by bribing relevant people at the BRTA, a driving license could be managed. If this is the reality we cannot expect a reduction in the number of accidents on the highways.
Life is not this cheap as we see it is on the highways, but negligence to this grave problem shows that the government here seems to think that life is cheap. Its attitude is like this: let people perish that way. We have seen the government was more interested in banning the motorcycle on the highway during this Eid, allegedly under the influence of the syndicate of bus owners so that motorcyclists cannot earn money by ride sharing than taking the right steps to control accidents. But banning motorcycles could not decrease accidents on the highways. Far from it, the number of people killed during this Eid was actually seven-year high.
On the roads and highways, you will never see a disciplined traffic moving on their lanes with the permitted speed. Everywhere, be it on the highways, roads and streets in the metropolis, there is absolute chaos. Dedicated lanes for motorcycles and even bicycles on the streets are now the crying need, but there is no initiative to create such lanes.
The government is there with the apparatus and manpower of the state to serve people, but the actual attitude seems to be that they want to lord over the dusty millions who are unaware of their lives themselves. If the spirit of serving people and their lives remains absent, how can we hope to overcome the desperate situation on roads?
