PM orders limiting driving hrs to check fatal accidents

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday ordered agencies concerned to ensure drivers take rest after five hours of driving, alternative drivers for long distance transports and service centres by highways across the country to avoid fatal accidents. 
The premier issued the directives chairing the weekly cabinet meeting at the secretariat against the backdrop of increasing incidents of road accidents that killed dozens just in a couple of days, mostly due to reckless driving and exhaustion of drivers for longer driving hours. 
At least 38 people were killed in road accidents in 12 districts in a single day on Saturday amid lax monitoring by the authorities concerned and exhaustion of drivers from uninterrupted duty during Eid holidays last week.
Decisions made in the past on several occasions to ensure road safety have not been executed. 
‘The prime minister at the outset of the cabinet meeting issued a set of directives including enforcement of existing laws to ensure road safety,’ cabinet secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told a press briefing after the meeting. 
He said the PM asked the three ministers responsible for road transports, shipping and home affairs to monitor enforcement of her directives as well as laws to ensure discipline in the road transport sector and check deadly accidents taking place almost every day. 
A total of 874 people were killed in 848 road accidents between January and April this year across the country, according to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority’s data based on first information reports of police. 
Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh, a civil society organisation, however, in a report said that between January 1 and April 20 this year 1,841 people were killed and 5,477 more injured in 1,779 road accidents across the country.
The association in a release on Monday welcomed the PM’s directives and asked for immediate steps to execute those to check loss of lives in fatal accidents. 
‘The news that five people were killed in a road accident in Tangail came when the cabinet meeting was in progress,’ the cabinet secretary mentioned. 
The PM directed all concerned to make sure passengers and drivers fasten seatbelts while travelling, he said, referring to the 2011 accident in Manikganj that killed cinematographer Mishuk Munier, who, the cabinet secretary mentioned, was sitting on the front seat of the microbus without seatbelt. 
Road transport minister Obaidul Quader told the meeting that tough provisions were incorporated in the proposed road transport law to maintain order in the transport sector as shipping minister Shajahan Khan, also a transport labour leader, pressed for addressing issues other than drivers responsible for accidents, said a minister. 
‘The drivers do not deliberately cause accidents. Other factors like three-wheelers plying highways and jaywalking by pedestrian must be addressed to check accidents,’ the shipping minister told New Age quoting Shajahan, executive president of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik Federation, as saying in the meeting. 
Sheikh Hasina also asked the authorities for steps to stop jaywalking by pedestrians and movement of three-wheelers and remove illegal structures from the highways although similar decisions were taken time and again by the National Road Safety Council in the past without any move to implement those during the incumbent government’s two consecutive terms, according to officials. 
The PM said all drivers and helpers should be given proper training, the cabinet secretary said. 
Drivers during rush time like Eid drive day and night without adequate rest due to shortage of divers and heavy congestions on highway as well. 
Decisions of National Road Safety Council, led by the road transport minister, that include freeing highways of illegal establishments, markets and three-wheelers have largely been ignored for years on amid repeated incidents of fatal accidents. 
Experts and civil society representatives have blamed nexus among government officials and transport operators allowing movement of unfit vehicles, reckless and unskilled drivers, culture of impunity and corruption for the existing anarchy on roads.
Years after years, the NRSC recommendations for being more judicious in giving fitness certificates and registrations, increasing training for drivers and bringing responsible drivers, owners, engineers and fitness authorities under law have been overlooked at the cost of many innocent lives, they say. 
The shipping minister in August 2011, a few days after filmmaker Tareque Masud and cinematographer Mishuk Munier died as a bus rammed into their microbus in Manikganj, said that anyone able to recognise ‘cows and goats on the road’ could hold a driving licence.
The NRSC was established in 1995 to take policy level safety-related decisions, action plans, give directives to road safety-related stakeholders and monitor these.
At the 24th meeting, held on January 12, 2016, toad transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader had admitted that the district road safety council committees remained inoperative.
In 2011, a committee was formed under the council which submitted 52 short-term recommendations on road safety including appointment letter and fixed work hours for workers, no leasing out of public transports, awareness of traffic rules, strict maintenance of driving licence and fitness certificate procedures, training for drivers and strict implementation of traffic rules. 
BRTA data show that in 2017, a total of 2,513 people were killed. In 2016, the number of deaths in road accidents was 2,463. 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net