Six years have passed since student protests for road safety gripped the nation in 2018 that led the government to make many promises and take several initiatives, but fatal road crashes continue unabated and even in a greater number instead of decreasing.聽
Reports show that students account for an alarming number of road crash fatalities.
Thousands of students took to the streets after their two fellows were killed on July 29, 2018 when a Jabal-e-Noor company bus ploughed through a crowd in front of Kurmitola General Hospital in the capital as its reckless driver raced with another bus of the same company.
Two students of the city鈥檚 Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College鈥擟lass XI student Diya Khanam Mim, 17, and Class XII student Abdul Karim Rajib, 19鈥� were killed with several injured in the incident.
The deaths sparked countrywide protests, with students demanding the highest punishment for the bus drivers responsible for the killing of the two, establishing footbridges and taking measures to ensure safe movement of students, establishing speed-humps in crash-prone areas, strict monitoring of unfit vehicles and unlicensed drivers and a ban on carrying extra passengers on public transport.
The demands of students still remain largely unmet.
This year the day returned at a time when the country is reeling from one of its deadliest student protests which, starting on July 1 for quota reform in government jobs, turned violent on July 16 as the police and ruling party activists launched attack on the protesters in which at least 212, mostly students, were killed across the country till Saturday.
Following the road safety protests, the government in September passed the Road Transport Act, 2018, prompting transport workers鈥� protests causing a 13-month delay in bringing the law into effect on November 1, 2019.
In December 2022, the government framed the rules of the Road Transport Rules.
Now the law awaits amendment on some sections for lowering punishments for different offences.
In June 2018, prime minister Sheikh Hasina issued a set of directives, including the provision of rest for drivers in every five hours of driving and backup drivers for
long-distance trip making vehicles, training for drivers and their assistants, resting places for transport workers and use of seatbelts, which still remain largely unmet.
Meanwhile, according to the Bangladesh Police data, in 2018 a total of 2,635 people were killed in road crashes.
In 2023, the number of people killed in road crashes reached 5,024, as per the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority that sourced data from the police.
A report, published earlier this month by non-governmental body Road Safety Foundation, revealed that at least 5,619 students were killed in road crashes between January 2019 and June this year meaning road crashes killed three students on average per day.
Among the deceased students, 53 per cent were 18鈥�25 years old and 47 per cent were 5鈥�17 years old, the report added.
鈥業 do not see any achievement of the 2018 movement,鈥� said Professor Shamsul Hoque, director of the Accident Research Institute under the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
He said that no directives from the prime minister or the government were fulfilled properly till now to ensure road safety.
鈥榃e need accountability of the authorities to implement the laws and directives which are absent here,鈥� he observed and added that if the authorities kept giving emphasis only on building infrastructure road safety would never be achieved.
The bleak scenario is evident in international reports too.
According to the World Health Organisation estimates, the numbers of road traffic fatalities in Bangladesh were 21,316 in 2015; 24,944 in 2018; and 31,578 in 2021.
The WHO figures are significantly higher than the Bangladesh Police data, which showed 2,376 deaths in 2015; 2,635 deaths in 2018; and 5,084 deaths in 2021.
Road Transport and Highways Division secretary ABM Amin Ullah Nuri said that public awareness was a must for reducing fatal road crashes.
