The government
must be ready to go
the whole hog; its
determination to put in place a new law with assured deterrent effect on the instinct of killer rivers must be absolute
To deter killer drivers
Concern over road safety is growing following the sudden unusual rise in road accidents over the last week across the country. Lives of those who commute from one place to another using the roads and highways across the country have now been rendered most vulnerable. After the loss of 40 lives in 4 days starting from the Eid vacation, 22 more people were killed and 90 injured in road accidents across the country till yesterday. Experts attribute these accidents mostly to vehicles without fitness certificates and more importantly to reckless driving.
Following the tragic deaths of two accomplished persons in the realm of arts and culture--a couple of years ago-- in a road accident and the countrywide resentments it stirred up, Prime Minster (PM) Sheikh Hasina seemed to take a personal interest in the matter and directed the Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB) to form the draft of a law to replace the 70 year old motor vehicle ordinance at the fastest.
But vested groups were out to kill the initiative. In 2013, a minister patronized a huge and militant rally of owners of trucks and their operators from which all kinds of messages were sought to be conveyed to the government to refrain from adopting any laws that would be tough on drivers and owners.
The present law is too soft and allows light punishment for cases of reckless driving causing deaths and injuries. The draft of the new law was supposed to propose rigorous imprisonment of varying durations from five to seven years or ten years depending on the nature of the offence. It could even propose the maximum punishment of death penalty or imprisonment for life.
If the new law was adopted --swiftly-- including the provisions for heavier punishment, specially the one of capital punishment, the same would likely be cheered on by people. But transparently the interest groups in the transportation sector would loathe to see such a law coming into effect.
One may recall in this connection that when the prevailing law was sought to be amended in 1983 with stiffer penal clauses, it was resisted by road transport workers, particularly by drivers and their associations. The rabble roused by them at that time was enough to stop the government in its track and retreat. The same sort of thing must not be allowed to happen this time also.
The government must be ready to go the whole hog; its determination to put in place a new law with assured deterrent effect on the instinct of killer rivers must be absolute.
However, it also calls for recognition at this stage that for the new law to be truly effective, other requirements would need to be also fulfilled such as cleansing corruption in BRTA to ensure issuing of driving licenses only after passing in proper tests. The competence as well as scrupulousness of traffic policemen should be increased for them to determine who should be blamed after an accident. Besides, roads and highways must be also well maintained to prevent accidents.
