60 ambulances, 80 bikes to speed up highway rescue
The government on Monday launched 60 ‘Post-Crash Response Ambulances’ to ensure faster rescue and emergency treatment for road accident victims, while handing over 80 motorcycles to highway police for quicker response.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Sheikh Rabiul Alam inaugurated the services at a programme at the Road Bhaban in Tejgaon, Dhaka.
The new emergency response service will operate across 500 kilometres of highways under three corridors, with the ambulances deployed as basic life-support units under the Bangladesh Road Safety Project, financed by the Bangladesh government and the World Bank.
The three corridors are Joydebpur-Rajshahi, covering 227 kilometres; Joydebpur-Mymensingh, covering 100 kilometres; and Hatikumrul-Bogura-Rangpur, covering 170 kilometres.
According to project officials, one ambulance will be positioned approximately every 10 kilometres, allowing the nearest unit to reach an accident site quickly after receiving information.
The service will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The entire operation will be managed through a central call centre.
When a caller reports an accident through the designated hotline, the operator will collect information about the location, type of accident and number of injured people.
The operator will then alert nearby trained volunteers, ambulance drivers, medical assistants and supervisors.
Volunteers will reach the accident site first and provide initial treatment. Based on information provided by them, an ambulance will be dispatched from the nearest site office.
The call centre will also coordinate with the Fire Service and Highway Police when necessary.
Each ambulance will have three Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council-registered health technologists, who will work in eight-hour shifts to ensure trained healthcare workers are available around the clock.
To make use of the critical period before an ambulance arrives, two local volunteers every 200 to 300 metres along the selected corridors have been trained in first aid.
The volunteers will work without payment and will be provided with first-aid boxes and identifying uniforms.
At the inauguration programme, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Sheikh Rabiul Alam said the government was working to reduce deaths from road accidents by half by 2030.
He said the ministries of road transport, home affairs and health would have to work together in a coordinated manner to achieve the target.
The minister stressed driver training and physical fitness checks, public awareness, controlling excessive speed, ensuring helmet use and taking necessary measures at road-risk locations.
Sheikh Rabiul Alam said work was under way to formulate an integrated law for road safety, with a target of enacting it by December 2027.
He said initiatives were also being taken to scrap and recycle old and unfit vehicles, relocate hazardous roadside markets, improve road intersections and markings, and make ambulances and trauma centres operational to ensure faster treatment after accidents.
“Only through law enforcement, public awareness and coordinated initiatives can we ensure safe roads,” he said.
Nationalist Labour Party chief coordinator and MP Shamchur Rahman Shimul Biswas attended the programme as a special guest.
Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs Manzur Morshed Chowdhury, Health Services Division Secretary Md Kamruzzaman Chowdhury, Road Transport and Highways Division Secretary Mohammad Ziaul Haque, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, and Roads and Highways Department Chief Engineer Md Moniruzzaman were also present, along with senior officials of relevant agencies.
