DEATH tolls in the highway are only soaring on daily basis holding the nation hostage to unusual death of its citizen any day any time without least warning about it. Media reports said 19 people were killed in six districts on Wednesday raising question what safety measures the government has on our roads and highways and what the Highway Police, Communication ministry and local authorities are doing about to hold back such accidental killing of people almost on daily basis.
No sooner the tragedy of Wednesday was over five more were killed on Friday including two Jahangirnagar University students on Dhaka-Aricha Highway. On Friday a total of 17 were also injured and death toll reached 914 over past 104 days. Then on Saturday 10 more died in road accidents throughout the country.
What is noticeable is that despite the growing number of death row on roads and highways nobody seems to have any care about it. Nobody is taking responsible for such untimely death, which is the single most cause of adult death in the country while the government is taking it almost a natural phenomenon shrugging off all responsibility as nothing they can do about it.
In Comilla, a bus helper was killed on the spot and six passengers were injured when a bus plunged into a roadside ditch on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. In Jhenaidah, at least 15 persons were injured when a passenger bus overturned and fell into a road side ditch. Meanwhile, the lawmaker of Dinajpur-1 Constituency and five others sustained injuries in a road accident on Dinajpur-Dhaka Highway. The annual death figure stands over several thousands that we can’t allow to continue.
We all know that reckless driving and unfit vehicles are mainly responsible for most such accidents. Faulty roads, untrained drivers, narrow deuce way through market-places and road breakers which drivers often ignore while driving in speed are the common causes of such accidents. The point is that everybody is affiliated to the ruling party politics — now like in the past and they don’t want to bring significant change to the traffic rules and impregnation mechanism with qualitative change at all levels.
The government is now busy with Road Transport Act-2017 calling for drivers’ minimum academic qualification and that they should hold valid driving license. But in our view the crisis is much deeper. Bus owners must realize they can’t run unfitted vehicles to make money. Drivers unions and bus owners’ associations must press for rigorous training of drivers and screening test for recruitment. Such compliance requirement depends on political will of the government that can only make drivers, owners and traffic officials responsible to reduce accidents and death at the end. The government must know it is not a mere driving license issue. The bigger issues is impunity from crime, which is keeping highways unprotected.
What is noticeable is that despite the growing number of death row on roads and highways nobody seems to have any care about it. Nobody is taking responsible for such untimely death, which is the single most cause of adult death in the country while the government is taking it almost a natural phenomenon shrugging off all responsibility as nothing they can do about it.
In Comilla, a bus helper was killed on the spot and six passengers were injured when a bus plunged into a roadside ditch on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. In Jhenaidah, at least 15 persons were injured when a passenger bus overturned and fell into a road side ditch. Meanwhile, the lawmaker of Dinajpur-1 Constituency and five others sustained injuries in a road accident on Dinajpur-Dhaka Highway. The annual death figure stands over several thousands that we can’t allow to continue.
We all know that reckless driving and unfit vehicles are mainly responsible for most such accidents. Faulty roads, untrained drivers, narrow deuce way through market-places and road breakers which drivers often ignore while driving in speed are the common causes of such accidents. The point is that everybody is affiliated to the ruling party politics — now like in the past and they don’t want to bring significant change to the traffic rules and impregnation mechanism with qualitative change at all levels.
The government is now busy with Road Transport Act-2017 calling for drivers’ minimum academic qualification and that they should hold valid driving license. But in our view the crisis is much deeper. Bus owners must realize they can’t run unfitted vehicles to make money. Drivers unions and bus owners’ associations must press for rigorous training of drivers and screening test for recruitment. Such compliance requirement depends on political will of the government that can only make drivers, owners and traffic officials responsible to reduce accidents and death at the end. The government must know it is not a mere driving license issue. The bigger issues is impunity from crime, which is keeping highways unprotected.
