5 lakh unfit vehicles ply on roads across Bangladesh

Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh has more than 500,000 expired and unfit vehicles, Nur Mohammad Mazumder, chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), said on Tuesday.

The BRTA chairman also said 30 per cent of those vehicles do not operate on the streets, but the ones that do contribute to road accidents.

Speaking at a program marking National Road Safety Day, he also pointed out that vehicles running at high speed on improved roads, flyovers and the elevated expressway are also causing more road accidents.

Besides,The BRTA chairman also mentioned that the number of executive magistrates employed to supervise roads was “not enough”.

“They’ve been given a target to file cases, and six magistrates will be assigned to six divisional cities. We’ve begun adding demerit points to drivers on charges of speeding and accidents,” he said.

“We’ve arranged for testing the eyes, blood pressure and random blood sugar for drivers at different bus terminals in the country and BRTA professional training centers.”

“This showed us that most drivers were suffering from high blood pressure and eyesight issues.

That is leading to unwanted accidents. We also found issues with pupils contracting in many drivers.”

The BRTA chairman the diagnosis of 249 drivers showed 47 had blood pressure problems, 69 had blood sugar issues, and 109 others had smoking complications.

Of them, 164 had eyesight issues, while 59 had various other problems, with eight suffering from difficulty relating to contraction of the pupils.

On Oct 22, different locations in Dhaka will be decorated with road safety messages and public awareness leaflets and stickers will be distributed among the people.