The lack of enforcement by the authorities, especially by the traffic police, to keep unfit and unauthorized vehicles off the roads continues to create chaos on the city roads.
According to newspaper reports, the unfit vehicles, including buses, trucks, pick-up vans and private cars, are releasing black smoke, aggravating the pollution of the city’s already highly polluted air.
It was also found that buses picking passengers standing in the middle of the roads, creating terrible traffic congestions.
Besides, unauthorized battery-run auto-rickshaws are also playing on major city roads, creating a huge gridlock.
Meanwhile, the interim government, in response to the request of vehicle owners, has decided to give them six months to phase out old and unfit vehicles from the capital, and switch to environment-friendly vehicles.
It aims at removing old vehicles for controlling air pollution in Dhaka city.
If they (owners) don’t follow the government’s instructions, the traffic police will be asked to take stern actions against them.
This begs a big question, why is road safety in Bangladesh, after countless tragic deaths, still not a priority?
Allegedly, the bus companies are the worst violators, and a look into news reports of accidents shows that consistently, buses are most frequently responsible for accidents.
Experts also question whether the fitness of the driver or the fitness of vehicles comes first to contain road accidents?
In fact, there is no strait and simple answer to this question because one cannot be prioritized over the other. So long it was unfit vehicles that figured as the number one cause of road accidents in the country.
We suggest road accidents cannot be reduced in any way by leaving unfit vehicles in the hands of unlicensed drivers on roads and highways.
The way the Road Transport Act has been revised and transformed into a powerless law like a tiger without claws and teeth under pressure from the transport owners and labourers, is rather playing a supportive role in increasing chaos on the road.
What alternatives are there except political goodwill to reduce road accidents? Killing of the citizens on roads must be stopped.
