Safety first, but do we really care?

Shafiqul Alam Eight home-bound passengers died falling off the rooftop of a passenger train at Mirzapur after they had been hit by overhead railway cables and four other people faced the same fate after they had fallen off the rooftop of a Dinajpur-bound train. The joy of Eid, thus, turned into a tragedy. Every year, people face transport and ticket crisis during the two Eid-festival holidays and as such, hundreds of people are seen going to their villages by sitting on the roofs of buses, trains and launches, risking their lives just to spend a few days with their family members. Overloaded launches with thousands of homebound passengers leave the launch terminal for different destinations without adequate safety measures, posing a serious threat to the lives of the passengers. Though one should consider "safety" first, the situation forces people to take risks. At times, people take risks on their own. It, thus, seems that we know the term "safety first", but do we really care? Accidental deaths at construction sites in Dhaka in recent months might have set a new record. More than 90 people were reportedly killed at the construction sites between January and June this year. On the one hand, the workers are falling from high-rises and on the other hand, vulnerable pedestrians are being hit by falling bricks. All these incidents show us how the safety issues are being neglected and more importantly, the reluctance of the concerned authorities to enforce the safety rules. Regrettably, the safety culture is absent in our country. A common scene is that people are crossing busy roads in so carefree a manner that there seems to be no danger to life. They do so even at points where foot over-bridges stand unused. In the absence of an adequate number of public transports, people overcrowd the buses, trains and launches knowing full well what might happen anytime. In fact, neither the government nor the passengersworkers seem adequately appreciative of the safety culture. It has been seen that following an accident, when some lives are lost, the government announces some new actions but the same are not followed up properly, leading to the return of the status quo ante. On the other hand, the government has hardly succeeded to create mass awareness on safety issues. Be that as it may, under such circumstances, the civil society members, NGOs and media, in particular, need to organise a strong and focused movement demanding enforcement of minimum safety regulations. Of late, a movement has been started demanding safe roads and it is good news indeed. The benefits of developing a safety culture are often long-term ones. That is why safety awareness campaigns have to be regularly organised at a national level, to constantly improve the behaviour and attitudes of people, be it passenger, worker, driver or factory owner. The writer can be reacted at email: shafiqul0032@yahoo.com