Unsafe highways lead to head-on collisions
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
EIGHT people, including five schoolchildren, were killed and two critically injured in an accident at Kumira of Sitakunda in Chittagong on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway last Monday. It was certainly a great tragedy unfolded yet again on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway.
Road accidents and other types of fatal accidents do result from human failings or any other causes and occur everyday at different parts of the world. But that is no reason for not taking seriously a violent road accident that leads to loss of numerous lives. In our country, as has been seen, many accidents result from mismanagement and unconcern over road safety.
These can be avoided if there are effective efforts to address them. Road accidents on the highways usually prove more lethal but hardly any serious effort is yet visible to help strengthen road safety and minimise deaths on the roads. It seems that we have not learnt any lesson from frequent road accidents: so fatalities keep recurring.
Owing to neglect to the railways, the country is becoming overwhelmingly dependent on road transportation. But the condition of roads and highways and traffic efficiency have not improved. Rather, things have seemingly deteriorated to maximise accidents. The highways must ensure one-way flow of traffic by a road divider.
This will at least prevent head-on collisions which are particularly devastating. From reports it appears that the accident occurred at Kumira when the offender bus was overtaking another vehicle. The buses have understandably a compulsion to complete their trip within a given time.
But they have no compulsion to compete with one another on the road at the risk to the safety of passengers in order to operate optimally. This must not happen at the cost of human lives. The transport owners should themselves extend all cooperation for maintenance of the normal traffic rule.
Abdus Sobhan
Dhanmandi R/A
Dhaka
Road accidents and other types of fatal accidents do result from human failings or any other causes and occur everyday at different parts of the world. But that is no reason for not taking seriously a violent road accident that leads to loss of numerous lives. In our country, as has been seen, many accidents result from mismanagement and unconcern over road safety.
These can be avoided if there are effective efforts to address them. Road accidents on the highways usually prove more lethal but hardly any serious effort is yet visible to help strengthen road safety and minimise deaths on the roads. It seems that we have not learnt any lesson from frequent road accidents: so fatalities keep recurring.
Owing to neglect to the railways, the country is becoming overwhelmingly dependent on road transportation. But the condition of roads and highways and traffic efficiency have not improved. Rather, things have seemingly deteriorated to maximise accidents. The highways must ensure one-way flow of traffic by a road divider.
This will at least prevent head-on collisions which are particularly devastating. From reports it appears that the accident occurred at Kumira when the offender bus was overtaking another vehicle. The buses have understandably a compulsion to complete their trip within a given time.
But they have no compulsion to compete with one another on the road at the risk to the safety of passengers in order to operate optimally. This must not happen at the cost of human lives. The transport owners should themselves extend all cooperation for maintenance of the normal traffic rule.
Abdus Sobhan
Dhanmandi R/A
Dhaka