Once again a gruesome road accident – better call it killing by the wheel – shook our psyche on Thursday.
A recklessly driven bus first hit a university student and while fleeing, it ploughed into the pavement and ran over and killed a physically challenged boy near the Rampura Bridge.
Mehedi Hasan Parvez, 13, who was with her mother, died on the spot while Jahid Hasan, 24, a student of North China Electric Power University in Changping district of Beijing, succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Medical College Hospital around 5:30pm.
One after another, such nerve-wrecking accidents are taking place, but there is no letup on this as authorities continuously give a casual response to such accidents.
The cumulative impact of road accidents is damaging for the nation. Over 80 per cent of the 7,713 road crash victims last year were aged between 18 and 65 years, the most productive segment of the population, says the Road Safety Foundation.
The loss to the workforce caused by road accidents across the country amounted to Tk 23,460 crore, and the figure would be more than 1.5 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if the property damages are also taken into consideration.
Motorcycles were involved in 2,973 road crashes, which left 3,091 people dead last year. The figures were 43.53 per cent and 40.07 per cent of the total crashes and deaths that year.
The Road Safety Foundation found 10 major reasons behind road accidents, including faulty vehicles, speeding, unskilled and unfit drivers, unfixed working hours for professional drivers, operation of slow-moving vehicles on highways, reckless bike driving by youths, poor traffic management, and extortion in the transport sector.
Such a grim picture indicates deteriorating road safety although a stringent road transport act was enacted in the wake of a massive students’ movement in 2018 for safe roads. In almost every case, we witnessed the law enforcers remain reluctant to go into deep road accidents, while transport owners are shadowed by the blessing of power.
We must admit that the government has failed to make the roads safer for all despite many committees, many assurances, much research, and obviously many protests.
We have to say, without any exacerbation, the entire transportation system must be repaired.
Without ensuring a safe journey, no achievement would be counted by the youth as the right to living is the first and foremost right.
