Deaths on roads and highways
Monday, 31 May 2010
Shamsul Huq Zahid
KHANDAKER Khan Jahan Samrat, a student of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), was crushed under the wheels of a city bus while he was waiting for a bus by the roadside in front of the Eden Girls' College Thursday last.
The tragic incident immediately triggered street violence. Angry BUET students set ablaze four passenger buses and caused damage to many more at Palashi, Azimpur, Nilkhet and Chan khar Pool. Next day the BUET authorities put up overhead barricades to restrict the entry of buses and trucks into the roads adjacent to the university campus and the students brought out a procession demanding punishment of the driver of the killer bus.
Newspaper readers and TV viewers got shocked at the tragic and untimely death of a meritorious BUET student. However, all, except for the near and dear ones of the deceased, will possibly forget the incident within days.
Unfortunately, the people who are in charge of making the roads and highways across the country safe for the pedestrians and the passengers of all modes of road transport, are apparently least perturbed by the accidents that have been claiming lives of thousands of people every year. Going by the rising incidents of road accidents, one may wonder whether the drivers of buses and trucks have got the licence to kill anyone on the roads.
Fatal accidents involving passenger aircraft, trains and launches make media headlines for they do not take place everyday. But the death of even 15 or 20 people in bus accidents does not get the prominence that it deserves in the media since such deaths are daily events.
According to police records, a total of 130,000 people were killed in more than 70,000 road accidents between 1994 and 2008. But the actual number of deaths would be much higher as many such incidents are not reported to the police. What is alarming is that the number of both road accidents and their victims has gone up during last couple of years.
In Dhaka city, the number of road accidents declined significantly in the eighties and nineties. But in recent years there has been an upward trend in the same, much in line with the prevailing anarchic situation in the country's transport sector.
The reasons for frequent road accidents are very much known to everybody, including the people manning the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and the Bangladesh Police. Reckless driving, lack of enforcement of laws concerned, plying of dilapidated buses etc., are major causes of frequent road accidents. Be it in Dhaka city, where traffic law enforcement is relatively better than any other place in the country, or on highways, bus drivers in particular give a damn to traffic laws.
The look of some of the buses plying in Dhaka city would amply substantiate this observation. The lights on the back of more than 80 per cent of the city buses do not work. Many buses are plying before the very nose of the traffic police with their front or rear bumpers not in place. They pick up or drop passengers wherever, even in the middle of the road, they like. The drivers ignore passengers' request to drop them by the roadside. It is an open secret that more than half of the drivers of passenger vehicles do not have valid licences.
Commuters tend to believe that the police and the BRTA are deliberately negligent in allowing the bus operators to do whatever they like. It is because they are allegedly earning a hefty extra amount from the transport operators. And some mid-level police officials are reportedly 'benami' owners of a good number of inter-district and city buses and trucks.
The indifference to the growing problem of road accident is also evident from the way the highway police are operating now. Actually, the 'highway police' exists only in name. The government procured cars for use by the highway police to help reduce accidents on the highways. But one would hardly find those cars on the highways. The vehicles are often seen on the streets of Dhaka city ferrying police high officials or their family members.
The anarchic situation in the transport sector has reached its peak these days. Owners and drivers of all types of passenger vehicles show the least respect to the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act or other relevant laws. Examples are plenty to cite. All the passenger buses plying in Dhaka city have seats more than the ones authorised by the BRTA. None has ever tried to take the bus owners to task for making the passengers uncomfortable by putting up extra seats.
Another case in point is the unbridled rise in the fares of CNG auto-rickshaws and taxicabs. The operators do not switch on the fare meters and, in most cases, charge exorbitant fares from the passengers. What is worse is that they refuse to go to destinations of the passengers' choice.
Experts do often suggest enactment of a tough law providing death penalty for drivers found guilty of causing fatal accidents. But such a law is unlikely to make any noticeable improvement in the situation on the ground. Without proper enforcement, even tough laws become useless. Lack of enforcement of laws remains one of the major problem of governance in Bangladesh.
KHANDAKER Khan Jahan Samrat, a student of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), was crushed under the wheels of a city bus while he was waiting for a bus by the roadside in front of the Eden Girls' College Thursday last.
The tragic incident immediately triggered street violence. Angry BUET students set ablaze four passenger buses and caused damage to many more at Palashi, Azimpur, Nilkhet and Chan khar Pool. Next day the BUET authorities put up overhead barricades to restrict the entry of buses and trucks into the roads adjacent to the university campus and the students brought out a procession demanding punishment of the driver of the killer bus.
Newspaper readers and TV viewers got shocked at the tragic and untimely death of a meritorious BUET student. However, all, except for the near and dear ones of the deceased, will possibly forget the incident within days.
Unfortunately, the people who are in charge of making the roads and highways across the country safe for the pedestrians and the passengers of all modes of road transport, are apparently least perturbed by the accidents that have been claiming lives of thousands of people every year. Going by the rising incidents of road accidents, one may wonder whether the drivers of buses and trucks have got the licence to kill anyone on the roads.
Fatal accidents involving passenger aircraft, trains and launches make media headlines for they do not take place everyday. But the death of even 15 or 20 people in bus accidents does not get the prominence that it deserves in the media since such deaths are daily events.
According to police records, a total of 130,000 people were killed in more than 70,000 road accidents between 1994 and 2008. But the actual number of deaths would be much higher as many such incidents are not reported to the police. What is alarming is that the number of both road accidents and their victims has gone up during last couple of years.
In Dhaka city, the number of road accidents declined significantly in the eighties and nineties. But in recent years there has been an upward trend in the same, much in line with the prevailing anarchic situation in the country's transport sector.
The reasons for frequent road accidents are very much known to everybody, including the people manning the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and the Bangladesh Police. Reckless driving, lack of enforcement of laws concerned, plying of dilapidated buses etc., are major causes of frequent road accidents. Be it in Dhaka city, where traffic law enforcement is relatively better than any other place in the country, or on highways, bus drivers in particular give a damn to traffic laws.
The look of some of the buses plying in Dhaka city would amply substantiate this observation. The lights on the back of more than 80 per cent of the city buses do not work. Many buses are plying before the very nose of the traffic police with their front or rear bumpers not in place. They pick up or drop passengers wherever, even in the middle of the road, they like. The drivers ignore passengers' request to drop them by the roadside. It is an open secret that more than half of the drivers of passenger vehicles do not have valid licences.
Commuters tend to believe that the police and the BRTA are deliberately negligent in allowing the bus operators to do whatever they like. It is because they are allegedly earning a hefty extra amount from the transport operators. And some mid-level police officials are reportedly 'benami' owners of a good number of inter-district and city buses and trucks.
The indifference to the growing problem of road accident is also evident from the way the highway police are operating now. Actually, the 'highway police' exists only in name. The government procured cars for use by the highway police to help reduce accidents on the highways. But one would hardly find those cars on the highways. The vehicles are often seen on the streets of Dhaka city ferrying police high officials or their family members.
The anarchic situation in the transport sector has reached its peak these days. Owners and drivers of all types of passenger vehicles show the least respect to the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act or other relevant laws. Examples are plenty to cite. All the passenger buses plying in Dhaka city have seats more than the ones authorised by the BRTA. None has ever tried to take the bus owners to task for making the passengers uncomfortable by putting up extra seats.
Another case in point is the unbridled rise in the fares of CNG auto-rickshaws and taxicabs. The operators do not switch on the fare meters and, in most cases, charge exorbitant fares from the passengers. What is worse is that they refuse to go to destinations of the passengers' choice.
Experts do often suggest enactment of a tough law providing death penalty for drivers found guilty of causing fatal accidents. But such a law is unlikely to make any noticeable improvement in the situation on the ground. Without proper enforcement, even tough laws become useless. Lack of enforcement of laws remains one of the major problem of governance in Bangladesh.