Roton Malo
This is not all about recklessness. We all are on that same boat as and when we get the favorable situation. The way adults get sexy in dark room regardless of their relations, drivers get unstoppable to take the highest speed of their engines on free roads. To drivers, passengers are just like some toys! Is it really like that?
I do not think so. The drivers follow the roads. The way roads are set and systemized by the authority, the drivers follow that. Thus the roads follow the rules and systems set by the administration. So will the roads be controlled by itself or the right system to be in place to make the drivers follow that? What do you think?
Today, March 19, 2023, altogether 19 people breathed their last on roads in a blink of an eye in Madaripur. A Dhaka-bound passenger bus of Emad Paribahan plunged into a ditch at Kutubpur in Shibchar upazila of Madaripur district.
Road Accidents Unstoppable!
Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity on February 4, 2023 disclosed a findings from their newspaper counting of road crashes recorded in January that claimed 585 lives across the country in January.
Forty-six people killed in 44 railway accidents while 11 killed and one was injured in 13 waterway accidents in the same period of only one month.
The association identified that reckless driving, dangerous overtaking and movement of unfit vehicles, unskilled drivers and helpers, plying of slow-moving three-wheelers and human-haulers on highways, using headphones or mobile phones, using drugs, illegal occupation of footpaths, poor traffic management, and violation of traffic rules for the accidents and deaths.
Children fall prey most to road crashes!
Road Safety Foundation on May 19, 2022, informed that around 1,674 children (between one month and 18-year-old) died in road accidents across the country between January 2020 and April 2022.
The foundation remarked that most of the accidents occurred due to mismanagement and anarchy on the road and in the transport sector.
Of the deceased children, 337 were between one month and 5 year old, 754 were between 6 and 12 years, and 583 were between 13 and 18.
Who will resist the road crashes?
There’s the question arises, who will take action or stop the road crashes? Drivers, passengers, bus condition, proper road management, drivers’ self-control, rules and regulations on roads, or the system?
What do you think can reduce or stop frequent road crashes in Bangladesh? I think differently, and refers to the control on minds instead of controlling the cars.
So what will control passengers’ minds or the fast moving minds of brave drivers? The proper system in place on roads can help controlling the minds of drivers as well as the passengers.
The Dhaka-Chattogram road has seen a significant reduce in road crashes in the recent years as the highway police is controlling the speed by speed trackers and fining the drivers as soon as they cross their speed limit.
I would suggest, the highway police be vigilant and equipped with necessary number of speed trackers and fine the drivers who cross their limit.
The demand of drivers’ rest room in roads might not work. Drivers will drive reckless to earn more. The transportation is a business. Nothing else. I believe, the businessmen will surely try to save their businesses from huge loss and control their employee drivers.
The vehicle owners should not be instructed anything, but to count fines for their drivers attempt to cross the speed limit on every roads.
Limiting Motorbike’s Speed would not be a solution!
The two wheelers motorbike is the fastest vehicle on roads. They get easy pass through the busses and small space. So let those divers go ahead and catch their business.
Restrain the vehicles who carry lives and earn money. Let the reckless vehicles give extra fines to authority. That might be one of the best solutions to stop road crashes.
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Writer Roton Malo is a communications profssional and development worker. He is working at World Vision Bangladesh under a USAID funded food security program named “Nobo Jagtra Project”. Contact Email: [email protected]
