It was yet another pathetic and spine-chilling story on the road in Dhaka. A college student has lost his hand after being crushed by two speeding buses at a busy intersection in the city last week. The ill-fated student, also a part time worker to support his family, was travelling to his college in a crowded state-run bus when a madly racing private bus almost slide-touched the other one slicing the student's hand. It was a grisly spectacle, indeed.
The sad incident has obviously spurred a lot of questions about safety of passengers on the roads and streets of Dhaka and elsewhere in the country. As evident, the unfortunate incident happened due to reckless driving.
Reckless driving, particularly by buses, tempos and such public carriers is nothing new but it is getting worse every day. There could be lots of reasons for this unruly trend. First, there is great lack in policing unruly driving behaviour. Secondly, there is strong belief that one can easily escape such policing. Thirdly, most of the buses and tempos are driven by unqualified or inexperienced persons. Fourth, faulty vehicles and lastly, there is no exemplary punishment for the culprits.
This is not the first case of such an unavoidable tragic incident. On and often we hear about people getting crushed under the wheels of buses or other vehicles due to mad driving. Looking at the state of affairs on the roads in the city, it seems there is total pandemonium. Drivers of buses, trucks or such vehicles tend to be absolutely careless about safety of the passengers and people on the road. Buses and tempos run their vehicles completely upon their own will and whim. They halt anywhere with total disregard to the rules. There is total disrespect to the designated signage of stoppage or speed control. Even if they are sometimes intercepted by police, they get away easily.
The victim of last week's tragic incident may live the rest of his life with an artificial hand. However, he will be always haunted by the moans of losing an important limb due to the prevalence of craziness of the drivers and negligence of the concerned authorities in enforcing traffic discipline. His psychological, social, economic and physical loss cannot be compensated no matter how we foot his treatment bills.
Safety on the road is long due cry. While it needs committed and sincere implementation of the rules and regulations, it also needs awareness of the commuters in particular and the people in general. People need to be made aware of not boarding a crowded bus, of not disembarking from a running vehicle, of not crossing road at free will and so forth.
However, the onus lies with the concerned authority to be sincerely vigilant in stopping speedy race of vehicles, of punishing those drivers breaching the rules, of not allowing unqualified drivers and of stopping the faulty vehicles from plying. It is astonishing to learn that about sixty thousands vehicles, mostly buses, do not possess fitness certificates.
It is true that we are yet to have a dependable public transport system in the city. Nevertheless, we must ensure that whatever we have right now must be run efficiently for public convenience and safety. Otherwise, reckless driving will go on with many more tragedies waiting to be unfolded.
mohicsr@gmail.com