New Nation Report :
Bangladesh has a three-fold higher rate of road crash fatalities per capita than the rest of South Asia, with bus crashes playing a significant role. In a recent three-year period, buses were involved in roughly 50% of fatal crashes in the Dhaka metro region, compared to fewer than 1% in the United States and the United Kingdom.
On March 16, 2022, Orbis, a leading global non-governmental organization that has been a pioneer in the prevention and treatment of avoidable blindness for four decades, released new research showing that correctable vision problems among commercial bus drivers are a significant contributor to Bangladesh’s high rate of road crash fatalities.
The study was published in an Asia Pacific Journal of Ophthalmology special edition on the prevalence and impact of near- and farsightedness in Asia Pacific and globally.
Although visual clarity is a major criterion for obtaining a driver’s license, research show that uncorrected vision impairments are frequent among commercial drivers in low- and middle-income nations. Orbis wanted to know how widespread such eyesight impairments were among bus drivers in Bangladesh, and if they were linked to a history of motor vehicle crashes reported by the drivers.
During a three-month period in 2019, Orbis Bangladesh collaborated with local partner the Grameen GC Eye Hospital to provide free eye health examinations at ten bus terminals in seven districts across Bangladesh.
Near- or farsightedness was detected in majority of bus drivers who were examined. Furthermore, approximately one-fifth of bus drivers in Bangladesh failed to fulfil the distance vision threshold required for obtaining a commercial driver’s license; nearly 90% of these cases might be rectified with easily available therapies such as spectacles.
Road traffic injuries are the primary cause of mortality for people aged 5 to 29, making traffic safety a major public health problem, especially in low- and middle-income nations, where the number of road traffic deaths is rising at a faster rate than in high-income countries. Even though low- and middle-income countries have 60% of the world’s motor vehicles, they account for 97% of all road traffic deaths.
Given these ramifications, two of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals include aims for improving road traffic safety (SDGs). One calls for halving the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes by 2030, while the other advocates for increased road safety by expanding public transportation, with a focus on vulnerable users such as women, children, people with disabilities, and the elderly.
The analysis by Orbis demonstrates a significant correlation between enhanced access to vision screening and quality eye care and the possibility to address road traffic safety concerns in the most impacted areas while also meeting the SDGs. A reduction in road traffic crashes has been found to relate to gains in gross domestic product in low- and middle-income nations, in addition to advantages at the individual level.
These findings highlight significant policy recommendations, such as ensuring that specified vision standards are not just set for licensure, but also enforced by thorough testing of all candidates, especially those who are responsible for the safety of many other road users. Furthermore, considering the high proportion of drivers with vision impairment owing to easily treatable causes, all individuals who fail screening must be referred for reasonable and accessible care.
