Readers’ Voice

Where is the government’s role in preventing deaths in roads?

In Bangladesh road accidents are killing thousands of people every year, yet awareness to mitigate the menace has been non-existent.

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.

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? But 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.

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.

Ibn Manzoor
Dhaka, Bangladesh