Safe Roads, a Prosperous Country – Bangladesh First
Road transport is a vital driver of a country’s economy, development and daily life. But when roads become a cause of premature death, disability and lasting grief for families, it is only natural to question the success of that development.
A country’s progress cannot be measured only by how wide its roads are, how many bridges have been built or how much faster vehicles can travel.
One important measure of genuine progress is how safely people can travel and how well their lives are protected.
The theme for National Road Safety Day 2026, to be tomorrow (22 October), “Safe Roads, a Prosperous Country — Bangladesh First,” confronts us with this reality. The challenge now is to turn the theme into safety in people’s daily lives.
That requires effective laws, impartial enforcement, regular monitoring and accountability when responsibilities are neglected.
National Road Safety Day is rooted in a painful history.
On 22 October 1993, Jahanara Kanchan, the wife of film actor Ilias Kanchan, was killed in a tragic road crash.
He turned his personal grief into a driving force and built a social movement for safer roads.
Under his leadership, the Nirapad Sarak Chai (NISCHA, or “We Demand Safe Roads”) movement played an important role in bringing road safety to national attention through years of effort, public engagement and media support.
In 2017, 22 October was officially recognised as National Road Safety Day.
In 2026, the day will be observed for the tenth time. It offers an opportunity not only to remember the history of the road safety movement, but also to assess its achievements, limitations and next steps.
Why do deaths and the risk of disability on our roads remain so high despite annual observances, discussion meetings, rallies, banners and slogans? To answer this, we must move beyond treating road crashes simply as driver error or unfortunate events.
They can result from a combination of factors: speeding, reckless driving, unskilled drivers, defective vehicles, violations of the law, weak traffic management, hazardous road design, unsafe overtaking, driver fatigue, inadequate facilities for pedestrians and delays in receiving medical care after a crash.
Often, several risks are present at once. Blaming one driver, increasing fines or running awareness campaigns only around special observances is not enough.
What is needed is a coordinated, sustained and evidence-based approach.
According to the World Health Organization’s 2023 Global Status Report on Road Safety, an estimated 1.19 million people died in road crashes worldwide in 2021.
For Bangladesh, the report gives an official count of 5,084 road deaths that year, while the WHO’s modelled estimate was about 31,578.
This large gap between official figures and the international estimate raises important questions about how crash data are collected, how deaths are defined and counted, and how information from different institutions is brought together.
These figures refer to 2021; they are not current road death figures for 2026.
The discrepancy points to a key lesson: effective road safety policy requires a reliable, coordinated and regularly updated data system.
Without an accurate picture of the situation, it is difficult to identify the causes of crashes, locate high-risk areas or assess whether measures are working.
The state has the leading responsibility for road safety. Safe roads are not simply a matter of personal caution; they are part of public health, citizens’ rights, transport management and good governance.
The government must build and maintain roads, set rules for vehicles, check drivers’ qualifications, regulate the transport sector and ensure that laws are enforced.
It must also provide effective protection for passengers, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
The state’s responsibility includes checking whether roads remain safe after construction, whether transport laws are being followed, how quickly hazardous locations are improved and whether injured people receive timely medical care after a crash.
If the responsible agencies fail to coordinate their work or are not held accountable, road safety efforts will fall short of their goals.
The Road Transport Act, 2018 must be enforced consistently and effectively.
Action must be taken under the law against unlicensed drivers, unfit vehicles, speeding, dangerous overtaking, carrying too many passengers or excessive loads, and ignoring traffic signals. But having a law does not by itself ensure safety.
Lax enforcement, irregularities, bias or neglect can allow offences to recur.
Intensifying enforcement for a few days after a high-profile crash, then letting it fade, will not bring lasting change.
Laws must be enforced regularly, impartially and transparently, and applied equally to everyone.
Transport owners, drivers, workers, officials and influential people must all be subject to the law.
At the same time, enforcement must not become an excuse to harass ordinary people, impose unreasonable fines or abuse authority.
For 33 years, NISCHA has worked to raise public awareness of road safety and advocate policy change.
The government could draw on the experience of its nearly 120 branches to support local awareness programmes, identify hazardous locations, train drivers and increase public participation in road safety initiatives.
Regular coordination among government agencies, transport owners and workers’ organisations, educational institutions, healthcare providers, the media and voluntary organisations could make these efforts more effective.
The significance of National Road Safety Day on 22 October cannot be confined to remembering those who have died or holding ceremonial events.
It should be a day to review progress, identify the reasons for failure and commit to practical plans of action.
The government must enforce existing laws effectively, enact coordinated legislation where needed, build safe infrastructure, develop skilled drivers, provide emergency care and establish a reliable data system.
It must also regularly review progress and ensure accountability when responsibilities are not met.
To prevent road safety efforts from fading after a crash or a commemorative day, road safety must become a priority in national planning, routine administration and long-term public policy.
We want a Bangladesh where people can leave home and reach work safely, students can travel to school without fear, and working people can set out to earn a living and return safely to their families. Death on the roads must not be accepted as normal.
The causes of every crash must be investigated, and effective steps must be taken to prevent similar tragedies. The true value of development lies in protecting human life.
To fulfill the theme of National Road Safety Day, Bangladesh must move beyond formal promises and ensure time-bound action plans, an effective road safety law, impartial and consistent enforcement, regular monitoring, transparency and lasting accountability.
Passing a law cannot be the end of the work; nor can temporary enforcement drives stand in for sustained action.
To make ‘Safe Roads, a Prosperous Country — Bangladesh First’ a reality, existing laws must be properly enforced, timely legislation enacted, and monitoring and accountability secured to prevent road crashes.
(Author: Teacher, poet, columnist, social worker and organiser, Founding President, Bangladesh Government Secondary Teachers Association (Agriculture), Central Committee, Joint Secretary-General, Nirapad Sarak Chai
(NISCHA), Email: lionganibabul@gmail.com)
