On Friday night, over 13 people were killed while injuring 21 more in a head-on collision at Faridpur between a bus and a covered van carrying gas cylinder on Dhaka-Khulna highway. Burst of cylinder killed so many people. In Magura, four people were killed and six others injured after a microbus fell into a ditch on Magura-Jessore highway followed by a sequence of road accidents in Natore, Satkhira, Rajshahi and Jessore.
In another accident at Belaboo in Narshingdi 11 people were killed in another head-on collision between a bus and a truck on Sunday morning that actually happened as tired sleepless drivers were on the steering.
Marking the spots, it is as if, the entire road and communications system of the country has suddenly turned into a huge death trap in the hands of errant drivers. In most cases police only appear after the accident to perform ritual obligations. After the filing of cases almost nothing happens, the culprit transport operators roam about scot-free while causing more accidents.
The question that automatically arises is – what is the Highway Police doing? It’s time to hold the Highway Police accountable, and it’s also time to make them accept responsibility of all these unanticipated deaths.
With the onset of winter, we had previously called the Communication Ministry’s Roads and Highways Department for adopting a series of preventive measures to counter foggy weather, which too went unnoticed. Coupled with the Highway Police the department should also shoulder responsibility for not securing the hundreds of kilometers of highways and risky turning across the country.
We want the major roundabouts and our roads and highways intersections to be brought under close circuit TV surveillance to closely monitor reckless movement of traffic and policing of our communication network.
We want our roads to be free of all obstacles and it is here where illegal establishments on roadside backed by regime’s political support have made traffic movement more risky. Shops, vendors, temporary huts and stalls must be removed at the quickest. That said, we are somewhat appalled to witness these obstacles continue to occupy roadside despite repeated demand to keep highways at certain distance clear from encroachments. The law enforcers in this regard are not only weak and corrupt but also ineffective.
Undeniably, the increasing number of accidents in our roads clearly proves the lawlessness in our Road Transport Sector besides marking the lack of effective measures to reduce accidents. This is straightaway unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.
