Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
About 17 lakh untrained up drivers are blamed for alarmingly increasing road accidents across the country recently.
The unskilled drives cause the road mishaps as they have no clear idea as how to face an emergency situation on roads and highways.
According to the latest data of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), there are around 34 lakh registered vehicles in the country but of them 17 lakh are license holders and other 17 lakh are unlicensed drivers.
The BRTA issues two types of licences professional and non-professional. And there are three categories of vehicles under the professional licence: heavy, medium and light.
A recent study by Accident Research Institute (ARI) at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) revealed that road accidents claim the lives of 12,000 people on an average annually and leave a further 35,000 injured.
In the latest, at least 57 people were reportedly killed in road accidents across the country on a single day ( on June 23), reports media.
Besides around 91 percent accidents have taken place on the highways due to reckless steering, mainly over speed and over taking tendency, that cause deaths in head-on collisions and in pedestrians being run over, said the official sources of the ARI.
They have drawn up a data base from police reports on accidents and has also on-the-spot reports in several cases.
The police only record data if there is a first information report (FIR) or if a case is filed. Other than that, there are no official records of accidents, they mentioned.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has issued a series of directives, including appointment of reserve drivers for long-distance vehicles, in an effort to curb road accidents.
She had given the directives in the light of rising road accidents in recent times, during a cabinet meeting at the Secretariat on Monday, said Cabinet Secretary Shafiul Alam.
The PM’s directives are reserve drivers on long routes, training for drivers and helpers, service centres or restrooms on highways with specific distance, to stop jaywalking, to ensure that everyone follows traffic signals and use zebra crossings and to ensure that both drivers and passengers wear seatbelts. Contacted, Kazi Md Shifun Newaz, an Assistant Professor at ARI, told the New Nation on Monday, “BRTA has no control over the training centres. Consequently, there is a lack of monitoring on important issues of the transport sector. The absence of sincerity in ensuring passengers’ safety is also noticeable.”
Because every commercial vehicle has an additional driver, the number of such unauthorised drivers is likely to be even higher, Newaz observed.
“Many of these drivers do not even know the importance of obtaining a valid licence. This is why their number is on the rise,” he added.
In addition to the registered vehicles, the Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association (BPWA) Secretary General Mozammel Haque Chowdhury claims there are also at least 15 lakh unskilled drivers whoe are still steering cars illegally..
“There are complaints that the drivers are declared qualified in BRTA’s licence tests in exchange for money, a portion of which is shared others,” he added.
“If the trend continues, skilled drivers would not be created, which will result in more road accidents.”
Mozammel urged the government to ensure fairness and transparency in the tests and reform the transport sector in order to purge it of illegal drivers.
Mahbub-E-Rabbani, Director (road safety) of the BRTA, said, “The primary reason for this is the number of illegal vehicles and unskilled drivers that lack even the basic training. They are running vehicles without heavy vehicles license.
“Even many drivers do not have any license, and the number of such drivers is not decreasing. Their negligence is leading to road accidents.”
Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners’ Association Chairman Faruk Talukder Sohel said, “About 80 per cent drivers do not have appropriate licences. Many of them are driving heavy vehicles either with their licences of light and medium vehicles, or without any licence.”
Atiqul Islam, Additional Inspector General of Highway Police, told the media that that the highway police have equipment in all places to detect over-speeding. Every day they are filing cases against those violating the speed limit.
Speaking to a number of drivers, it was learnt that most of the bus and truck drivers do not receive a monthly salary. The owner of the vehicle pays them according to the number of trips they make. That is why they speed on the highways, competing for the highest number of trips. This is how the accidents occur.
A 28-year old driver Abdul Goni, said, he has been driving a bus for a private company for the past seven years as a contractual employee. His duty starts at 6:00am and continues till 11:00pm almost every day.
