DESPITE many outcries and policy formulation to deter road accident, reckless driving is still snatching many lives and the Saturday’s horrific road accidents at Shahbagh and Matshya Bhaban intersections in the city which put out lives of two young girl students are the latest but not the last. As per a national daily on Tuesday, reckless driving and stopping abruptly by bus drivers are continuingly risking lives in the city. The busiest Shahbagh intersection has snatched out many lives, including Dhaka University students, over the years that compelled authorities setting up foot bridges but the chaotic situation in the intersection causes accidents. If the general people’s lives were valuable to the authorities maintained with the people’s money lives would not be easily lost due to the carelessness of bus drivers.
There are three footbridges at the intersection alone, but only a small number of people use those. Many pedestrians cross the roads risking their lives through the madly rush of buses instead of using nearby footbridges. Instead of using designated stops in front of the BSMMU hospital, buses stop or slow down in the middle of the busy intersection to pick up or drop off passengers. Passengers also often hurriedly come to the middle of the road and try to board moving buses putting their lives at risk.
Police are likely to take awareness campaign next month on using footbridges, but urban planners prefer marking zebra crossing instead of using footbridge in the busy areas. Zebra crossing at fixed places will make the drivers know where pedestrians are to cross the road and where they have to be careful.
Footbridges are effective where the people are not in a hurry to cross roads. Rights campaigners also asked for marking zebra crossing, maintaining strict traffic rules and train up drivers for deterring road accidents. In major streets of the capital city, zebra crossing for the pedestrians to cross roads could be a solution. But thoughtlessness is the way the authorities punch in country. To traffic police, all the government named VIPs are the only people who must be saved and protected. This colonial type attitude must change.
The truth is, the authorities are not responsible enough and that is the reason for the boldness of the bus drivers to be reckless about lives they kill.
