Bangladesh PM’s directives on road safety ignored [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Bangladesh PM’s directives on road safety ignored

Local April 02, 2019

Directives of prime minister Sheikh Hasina on road safety are largely ignored while the numbers of road accidents and deaths in the first three months of the year are much higher compared to that of the two previous years.
In the past three months, 1,220 people were killed and 2,045 were injured 1,126 traffic accidents, according to a report compiled by Accident Research Institute of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology based on reports published in four newspapers.
The number of deaths in road accidents in January-March period increased by about 28 per cent compared to 2018 and 49 per cent compared to 2017.
Road accidents and deaths in such accidents increased amid student protests, in July 2018 and in March 2019, for road safety.
Road safety experts said that the rising trend of road accidents and deaths were nothing surprising as the road transport sector was in total chaos that also led to non-compliance of the prime minister’s directives.
On June 25, 2018, at a weekly cabinet meeting, Hasina issued a set of directives, including rest for drivers in every five hours of driving and alternative drivers for long distance transports, training for drives and their assistants, resting places for transport workers and use of seatbelts.
She issued the directives against the backdrop of rising incidents of road accidents, mostly due to reckless driving and exhaustion of drivers from long driving hours.
The directives are still largely ignored while transport leaders cite lack of drivers, especially trained ones, as the major problem.
Till February this year, 38.85 lakh motor vehicles have been registered with the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority while the number of driving licences issued by the authority is 20.35 lakh.
Violation of traffic rules including reckless driving is one of the most common scenes on roads.
According to the Accident Research Institute data, during January-March period, 1,220 people were killed and 2,045 were injured in 2019, 953 were killed and 2,079 were injured in 840 accidents in 2018 and 817 were killed and 1,792 were injured in 637 accidents in 2017.
Besides, fatalities in road accidents increased in Bangladesh in 2018, showed Bangladesh Police statistics prepared based on first information reports.
The statistics showed that 2,635 people were killed and and 1,920 were injured in 2,609 traffic accidents in 2018, 2,513 were killed and 1,898 were injured in 2,562 accidents in 2017, 2,463 were killed and 2,134 were injured in 2,566 accidents in 2016 and 2,376 were killed and 1,958 were injured in 2,394 accidents in 2015.
In 2018 the country saw the first spell of week-long student protests for road safety erupted after two Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College students were killed and 12 were injured as a Jabal-e-Noor bus ploughed through a crowd at Kurmitola in Dhaka on July 29.
Within seven months, the student protests revived after a Suprabhat Pvt Ltd bus ran over and killed a Bangladesh University of Professionals student on Pragati Sarani at Badda on March 19, 2019.
A Bangladesh Road Transport Authority report, prepared in March, showed that more than 60 per cent of Suprabhat buses were driven by drivers without valid licence.
Accident Research Institute assistant professor Kazi Md Shifun Newaz said that most of the fatal traffic accidents were preventable.
Fatal accidents could be reduced drastically by managing traffic in crossing and rationalising bus routes in the capital while dividers were very effective to prevent head-on collisions on highways, he said.
Shifun said that the government had taken initiative to prepare one lakh professional drivers while the number was still low.
He urged the authorities to encourage private investment for creating more facilities for training of drivers.
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology civil engineering professor Md Shamsul Hoque said that it was almost impossible to control the chaotic road transport system due to faulty planning and monitoring systems.
He observed that the institutions were almost ruined.
As a result, the directives of prime minister even were yet to be implemented and there was no fixed action plan to implement these, Shamsul said.
‘There is nothing surprising that the accidents and deaths are increasing,’ he said, warning that the numbers likely continue to increase if the institutions were not reformed.