Can’t there be any accountability for deaths on roads?

Another tragic road accident on the highway took place on Wednesday when a truck rammed a pickup van carrying workers on the Dhaka-Chottagram Highway. The accident put an end to the lives of 15 construction workers. There seems to be no letup in the murderous accidents on the highways.

In Bangladesh, road accidents are killing thousands of people every year, yet awareness to mitigate the menace has been zero as of now, both on the part of the government as the controlling authorities as well as drivers of vehicles whose negligence on the wheel mostly cause the accidents.

The people are also in a way responsible for accidents on the roads. Their risk taking on the busy roads and highways is phenomenally bizarre in Bangladesh. We like to point out that if the government shows a quarter of the response to road accidents as it gives to contain the usual infectious diseases, every year thousands of lives on the roads could be saved. The figure of casualties from road accidents is no less than the deaths by serious infectious diseases.

Yet we do not find the government in war footing to control road accidents. Is this because the government is apparently not responsible for an accident? No way. The government has a responsibility. It is the government that has to ensure that the road infrastructure it builds is not prone to accidents, drivers drive responsibly with the traffic police, or the highway police, maintaining the traffic strictly following the traffic rules. But we really fail to understand why the government does not give the same kind of urgency to contain road accidents.

The Eid-ul-Azha is approaching and the highways will soon be busy in carrying home-bound Eid travelers as well as sacrificing animals. This is also the period of a greater number of road accidents. If the relevant authorities plan beforehand to manage the huge rush of Eid traffic, road accidents can be greatly minimised. If the existing callous approach to accidents is replaced by a vigorous and sustained response to the problem with certain measures, fatal road accidents will surely decrease greatly.

The deaths on roads due to sheer negligence by drivers as well as the government as the overseeing authorities cannot be acceptable.