Govt pays no attention to drivers' wellbeing

The transport worker leaders accused the government of never paying any attention to wellbeing of drivers (and helpers), although it spends billions of taka for development of road infrastructure and different professionals.
They said the professions of drivers and helpers are usually adopted by those, who are mostly grown up in an inhuman environment from childhood and deprived of getting any acceptable job, which lead them either to be mentally unstable or get addicted to overcome frustration.

The worker leaders also blamed the transport owners for depriving the drivers and helpers by not paying proper salaries and facilities, including appointment letters, making it a culture.
The leaders shared their views in a roundtable - 'How much responsible are drivers in road accident' - organised by Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation (BRTWF) at the National Press Club on Sunday.
BRTWF Executive President Shahjahan Khan presided over the roundtable, where its General Secretary Osman Ali presented the keynote paper.
Among others, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority Chairman Nur Mohammad Mojumder, Accident Research Institute's Professor Mohammad Mahbub Alam, Assistant Professor Kazi Md Shifun Newaz, Centre for Injury Prevention and Research Director (road traffic injury prevention unit) Selim Mahmud Chowdhury, and Additional Inspector General (AIG) of Highway Police Md Shahabuddin Khan spoke on the occasion.
Osman Ali said the transport sector contributes billions of taka to the government's revenue earning by carrying at least 300 million passengers and various goods, including food items, fuel, rod, cement, sand, etc, weighing about 100 million tonnes through 4.3 million transports and 7.0 million workers.
The keynote speaker also focused on the government's spending of Tk 2.0-3.0 million per person to develop skilled manpower like physicians, engineers, bureaucrats, bankers, etc, and said in absence of any training for professional drivers, they become drivers mainly through elderly drivers.
He referred to the ARI's investigation finding of an accident on the Dhaka-Bhanga Highway, which found fault in road design and road mismanagement as the reasons behind the accident.
The transport leaders, citing a survey of the World Economic Forum in 2018 and a report of the International Monetary Fund 2022, opined that the budgetary spending of Tk 1.10 trillion for road infrastructure development during the last 10 years did not ensure quality roads, and could provide average speed limit of 41 kilometre per hour.
Transport experts said drivers' problems must be addressed for real solution to road accidents.
The Highway Police AIG said to address road safety in real sense, drivers' responsibility of following traffic rules is also there, as violation of the rules has been rampant nowadays.
smunima@yahoo.com