THE ever-growing procession of death from accidents on roads and highways during Eid holidays demonstrates the government鈥檚 persistent apathy towards the absence of road safety. As people get back to work after celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr with their friends and family, in three accidents in two days, in April 16鈥�17, at least 28 people died and about 50 became injured. In the accident near the Gabkhan Bridge in Jhalakathi on April 17, 14 died after a truck had ploughed through several vehicles. When a bus and a pickup van collided on the Khulna鈥揇haka Highway at Dignagar Tentultala point in Faridpur on April 16, 14 people, including four of a family, died. One of the two vehicles involved in the Faridpur accident did not have a valid route permit, tax token, or fitness certificate and the pickup van was carrying passengers in violation of the road transport law. The flagrant violation of rules and regulations and high fatalities indicate that the assurances of the government, including the minister for roads and highways, that adequate and effective steps are taken to keep roads safe for holidaymakers lack merit. The mere strengthening of highway patrol to manage the movement of such a large number of people and vehicles is not the answer to long-standing systemic challenges that include poor road and traffic management, reckless driving, unfit vehicles on the streets, unskilled driving, etc.
As Eid approaches every year, thousands of people, especially the working class people, leave Dhaka to celebrate the festival with their family in outlying districts, but the journey home has almost always remained risky. The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority reported 77 death and 109 injuries in 70 road accidents in April 10鈥�14. In Eid-ul-Fitr 2023, as the Bangladesh Passengers鈥� Welfare Association says, at least 355 people died and 620 became injured in 341 accidents on the road, railway and waterways. The government鈥檚 preparedness is focused more on managing the aftermath of an accident than prevention. Two committees have been set up to investigate the two recent accidents in Jhenaidah and Faridpur and district administrations have promised compensation, as stipulated in the road transport law, for the victims. Similar investigations and promises were made after the deadly accident in Madaripur in March 2023. The investigation report on the Madaripur accident, which left 19 passengers dead, showed that the vehicle鈥檚 fitness certificate had expired and the transport company had a previous history of fatal accidents for which the road transport authorities had suspended its route permit. The government鈥檚 response cannot only be limited to forming investigation committees and high-powered committees to devise ways to ensure road safety, which, in the end, are never implemented and enforced.
It is time that the government recognised its failure and took immediate steps to improve road safety, setting a legal precedence of giving exemplary punishment to all responsible, from transport owners operating buses flouting regulations to government officers issuing fitness certificates to unfit vehicles.
