DEATH in road accidents is tragic case of systemic indifference and failure of successive governments. The Passengers Welfare Association of Bangladesh reports a shocking death toll and injuries on the road in May. In a monthly report, the organisation said that at least 622 people were killed and 1,652 others injured in 613 accidents in May. On May 26, at least 15 people were killed when a truck carrying passengers home overturned and plunged into a ditch. The passengers were riding on a truck laden with steel rods, a highly dangerous yet all-too-common cost-saving practice among working-class people travelling on the highways. As the holiday-makers were returning to Dhaka, a bus once again plunged into a river at the Daulatdia ferry terminal at Goalanda. During the Eid-ul-fitr holiday, in a similar accident at least 26 people were killed at the same ferry terminal. The deaths in Tangail and the drowning of a bus in a river during the Eid-ul-Adha holiday suggest that the government’s measures to ensure road safety for holidaymakers were ineffective and inadequate.
The report of the organisation also identified causes of accidents, which included the unchecked movement of battery-run rickshaws and auto-rickshaws on highways, lack of road signs as well as medians, faulty road design, the violation of traffic rules, unskilled, fatigued driving and reckless driving and unsafe travel on train roofs and goods-carrying vehicles because of the charging of extra fares by various transport operators. These are long-known factors contributing to high fatalities in road accidents. There are High Court directives, laws and regulations that provide road map to the redressal of these issues, yet death continues unabated. From 2019 to June 2024, as the Road Safety Foundation says, 32,733 accidents were reported across the country, resulting in 35,384 deaths and 53,196 injuries. The economic toll is equally severe, with road accidents estimated to cost up to 5 per cent of the country’s GDP each year. The government of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party appears to exhibit the same apathy as its predecessor Awami League regime. This indifference becomes evident when roads and highways minister focuses on disputing reports by passenger rights advocates rather than addressing the widely acknowledged structural problems in the sector.
The government should, therefore, abandon the legacy of indifference left by the fallen regime. There are expert recommendations outlining both immediate and long-term measures to make roads safe. In doing so, the government should ensure the strict enforcement of the Road Transport Act and consider amending provisions to strengthen criminal liability for non-compliant transport owners as well as compensation provisions for victims.
