Safe Road and Transport Alliance (SROTA), a civic platform of institutions and individuals working on road safety,  expressed deep concern over the deterioration of state of road safety in Bangladesh, says a press release.

Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, convener of SROTA, said that “Road crash, which is caused by human or mechanical failure, negligence, or a combination of many other unknown factors, should be dealt with the principles of prevention, attention and compensation. In any human attempt to reduce fatalities of road crash, realistic legislations and their effective enforcement are must where citizens as road user have vital role to shoulder”.

SROTA adopts an overarching mission of assisting government and non-government actors including development partners towards Bangladesh’s realization of SDG 11 specifically the goals of improved road safety and safe, accessible, affordable and sustainable transport systems. SROTA has been pursuing its mission through defined action plans that avoid duplication of existing initiatives and that prioritizes credible statistics, cross-sectoral dialogues and strengthening accountability mechanisms. It strives to create a space for a unified voice that pushes the holistic nature of the SDG 11 agenda.

 The alliance observed that weak, inefficient and traditional investigation process of the road crashes, however, have been found as a hurdle to justice for road crash victims, which includes but not limited to compensation but also for their rehabilitation. Under the current arrangement, investigation of road crashes lies to the police who investigate all forms of offenses under the Code of Criminal Procedure but they are not provided with any special training on investigation of road crash incidences, which should be made more specific in the proposed Road and Transport Act 2018.