Political parties demand: Separate road safety law in election manifestoes

Staff Reporter:

The campaigners of road safety on Sunday urged major political parties to include a clear commitment to enact a separate and comprehensive Road Safety Law in their election manifestos ahead of the 13th national parliamentary election, organised by Road Safety Coalition Bangladesh in the capital.

They said the existing legal framework is inadequate to curb the country’s growing number of road crash deaths.
Road safety expert M Khalid Mahmud read out a written statement at the press conference.

Speakers recalled that Bangladesh’s first transport-related law, the Motor Vehicles Ordinance of 1983, lacked essential road safety provisions, resulting in long-standing legal and enforcement gaps.

Although a draft Road Transport and Road Safety Act was finalised in 2016 it was not enacted at the time.

Following the 2018 student-led movement sparked by the deaths of two students of Shaheed Ramizuddin Cantonment College, the government repealed the 1983 ordinance and enacted the Road Transport Act, 2018 but many critical road safety components were omitted.

They noted that implementation of the law was further delayed due to the absence of rules until the Road Transport Rules, 2022 were issued on December 27, 2022.

Even then, road safety issues were addressed only briefly, leaving major legal ambiguities unresolved.
Road crashes remain one of the leading causes of death and injury in Bangladesh, speakers said.
Official data from agencies such as the BRTA and Bangladesh Police show that around 5,000 people die and more than 10,000 are injured every year.
However, estimates from the World Health Organization, non-governmental organisations and media reports suggest the actual figures are several times higher.