All vehicles must ply following lanes, on flyovers and on roads

The figure of deaths on Hanif Flyover in the last ten years alone tells us the recklessness of drivers in Bangladesh.

They don’t care about the speed limit. What could be the other reason than this for the large number of these accidents? According to a report yesterday, 1146 people died and 6,312 injured on Hanif Flyover through accidents in the period of a decade.

This means almost one hundred on an average each year.

It has been revealed that behind most of these accidents were motorcycles.

Since this figure was found by a voluntary research organisation called Save the Road, through its research of 21 newspapers (nationally circulated), 22 registered news portals, and different electronic media there is hardly any room for debating about it. In fact, the figure of deaths could be even greater than that.

Compared to any country of the world, the road traffic management is the worst in Bangladesh and thousands of lives are being perished every year here. Still, hardly any seriousness is found among the relevant authorities regarding this.

As it is found that bikes are responsible for accidents, it has been suggested for a long time that a separate lane be made for the bikers.

It is not only the bikes, in fact, all vehicles must ply the roads – flyovers are also parts of roads – following specific lanes, but such discipline could not be brought on the roads.

In reality, there is no serious attempt from the relevant authorities to do this. Ironically, this was possible once in Bangladesh when school and college students, reacting to the death of their fellow students, came onto the streets and on their own, forced the unruly drivers to ply their vehicles on the roads following lanes.

These tender-aged students showed Bangladesh if traffic police were sincere enough they could indeed regulate the traffic chaos.

However, since it has been found in the study of Save the Road that for the 70 percent of accidents motorbikes were responsible, there must be now lane on not just on Hanif Flyover, but on all highways to be precise.

Because, it was earlier found, on Eid occasions, motorbikes accounted for most of the fatal accidents on highways.

Besides, the traffic surveillance system on the roads, especially on the flyovers, must be strengthened and vehicles ply within the permission speed limit.