Staff Reporter :
Country’s roads have become deadlier in the recent days, and experts are mainly pointing to lack of implementation of existing law to discourage reckless driving by the unskilled and unlicensed drivers.
Experts also said that the crashes are the result of some other causes – including mobile phone use. Besides, the recent upward trend is propelled by unauthorized plying of three-wheelers and locally-made vehicles on the busy national highways.
A latest study said, at least 416 persons, including 54 women and 55 children, were killed and 1012 received injuries in 350 road accidents in different parts of the country in the month of January.
It said the overall number of accidents increased in January in comparison to the previous month of December. The accident increasing rate was 24 per cent while the fatality increasing rate was 25 percent.
The National Committee to Protect River, Road and Railway [NCPRRR] prepared the above report based on the stories ran in 20 national dailies, 10 regional dailies, eight online news portals and agencies, said a press release on Thursday.
The NCPRRR said, it has identified four major reasons behind the increasing accidents. These are- 1) Sudden increase of three-wheeler and locally made other vehicles on the roads and highways. 2) Not installing fog lights in the long-route vehicles. 3) Unskilled drivers with reckless driving. 4) Lack of awareness among the pedestrians and drivers of small vehicles.
Apart from it, the committee also marked some other faults as ‘general reasons’ for the rising accidents.
Of them, appointment of drivers without license, overloading and overtaking bypassing the law, long time driving without interval, bad shape of roads with risky turnings and lack of implementation of law to stop unfit vehicles are mentionable.
Earlier, the Jatri Kalyan Samity [Passenger Welfare Association], an organization which works on road accidents and protection of passenger rights, in another study said that about 8,642 people died in road accidents across the country last year [2016] while 1,305 persons became physically impaired losing their hands, legs or some other vital organs.
The organization also gave some recommendations to overcome the increasing accidents. These are: Carrying out publicity through educational institutions, places of worship and media to make citizens aware of traffic and motor vehicle laws; Removing markets from near national and regional highways and freeing footpaths from grabbers or unauthorised occupation; Installing road signs and marking zebra crossings; Imparting professional training to drivers and ensuring their leisure; Updating existing traffic laws and digitalising issuance and renewal of vehicle fitness certificates and Dividing highways for slow- and fast-moving vehicles.
But the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry and the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority [BRTA] did not pay any heed to it due to unknown reason.
