Poor road, traffic management cause rising accidents
Syed Shemul Parvez :
Although the road construction and development network in the country is being extended,fatal accidents are increasing daily due to a lack of safe traffic and road management.
There has been an alarming rise in the number of road accidents in the country over the last few years. The number of accidents and fatalities has continued to increase from 2020 to 2023.
According to sources, about 26,000 road accidents have occurred in the last four years. About 19 thousand people died in these incidents.
In the month of October this year, 437 people died in road accidents in the country. one-third of them were motorcycle riders.
According to experts, most of the accidents are occurring due to inefficiency of the driver and ignorance of the pedestrians.
Therefore, it is necessary to implement the Safe Road Act quickly.
The dreams of thousands of families who lost their loved ones in the accident have turned into dust today.
According to the passenger welfare body Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity (BJKS) statistics,51 percent of those killed were the sole wage earner in the family. One such victim family member is Amena Begum.She now roams around the streets.But a few days ago, her family was prosperous amid happiness.Everything fell into squandered apart when Amena’s husband was killed in a tragic road accident earlier in the year.
Amena Begum said when her husband was alive, she did not require any help from others.Now there is no one to support the family.I have become very helpless now.There is no one to help us, she added.
According to the Road Transport Act, compensation of Taka five lakh is being given to the families of victims from this year.However, Jatri Kalyan Samity (BJKS) thinks that it is not enough for the victim families.
Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, Secretary General of Jatri Kalyan Samity (BJKS), said that there is no technical mechanism in Bangladesh to make roads safe.
Mozammel Haque said: “Traffic wastes working hours. The uncontrolled rise of unfit vehicles, motorcycles, easy bikes, battery-run rickshaws and autorickshaws is due to the government’s poor planning.”
“Despite hastily passing the new Road Transport Act, 2018 in response to the demands of the protesting students, the desired results in this sector remain elusive due to obstacles from transport owners and workers as well as the outdated implementation of the law,” he said.
The government’s inability to ensure road safety and discipline stems from a lack of proper leadership and research. The BJKS leader also called for an immediate withdrawal of all false cases filed against the protesting students advocating for safe roads.
According to the Road Safety Foundation, 19,000 people were killed in 25,924 road accidents from 2019 to September this year.
7 365 of them were pedestrians.9309 people were killed in motorcycle accidents alone.
A previous report of BJKS revealed that at least 39,522 people have been killed and 58,791 injured in 28,299 road accidents across Bangladesh in the last five years.
Among them, 3,941 were students.
Communication expert professor Dr.M Shamsul Haque thinks that the authorities have taken various initiatives across the country including the capital to restore order on the roads.
However, roads could not be made safe due to poor management and lack of proper planning. He said, our roads may be getting better, cars are getting modern but the driver or the environment is still dangerous.As a result we cannot avoid accidents, he added.
