Govt must explain why there is no letup in fatal road accidents

Two successive major road accidents once again has brought before the very hard reality that lives are being perished on the roads as normal day-to-day incidents, but authorities are not taking any visible action to cut down on the rate of accidents. On Thursday, at least seven persons were killed when a running microbus hit another CNG-run auto-rickshaw head on at Companiganj, Sylhet.
Then again on Saturday at least 17 people were killed and 26 others injured as a bus fell into a pond by the side of Khulna-Barishal Highway in Jhalokathi. Obviously the driver of the bus lost control of the bus. Between Thursday and Saturday, Friday was not a day without casualties. According to a report in this newspaper yesterday, road crashes kill six people in Jamalpur, Narayanganj, Panchagarh and Cumilla.

Now the question is that in these deaths on roads every day, does not the government have any blame to share? The government indeed has a role in everything: From the issuing driving license to fitness checking of vehicles to constructing of roads and highways. They also have the agencies, including the highway police, to control the traffic by enforcing all rules in this regard. Since in everything the government has a definite role, it must also take its share of blame for deaths on the roads. They must give an explanation as to why roads and highways are as unsafe as ever despite the fact that huge money is being spent on everything that is related to traffic.

It is not that the owners of vehicles that often turn out to be faulty and drivers who are often found out to be inept are guilty of tragic road accidents, but as overseeing authorities, the government’s relevant organisations including the BRTA must have its responsibility to cull out faulty vehicles from plying and check if the driving license is going to wrong hands.
To ensure that the drivers who have already been issued driving licenses are skilled enough with proper traffic education, the BRTA can again offer driving license renewal test programmes for these drivers. After rigorous tests, only those who will pass can be given renewal of their driving licenses.
If the government will not take the task of drastically reducing the rate of road accidents, then who will?