It is worrying to note that separate road crashes killed at least 12 people in Gaibandha, Munshiganj, Khagrachhari, Manikganj, Sunamganj, Brahmanbaria and Panchagarh districts on Thursday and Friday last. It seems traffic movement in the country, particularly in the metropolis, is back to square one again. Anarchy has started prevailing on the road again with   ramshackle and rickety buses plying, underage drivers on the steering wheel, violation of traffic rules, overloading of vehicles, wrong way driving, jaywalking by pedestrians, etc. What is surprising is that all these are happening just after the ‘Traffic Week’ by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) ends.

Students returned to their schools and colleges after remaining on the streets for nine days beginning July 29 in support of their string of demands including justice for the death of two of their fellows in a road accident. It seems that efforts by school and college students to bring discipline to traffic movement have failed to make any impact. There is a heavy rush of people in the capital’s Bangladesh Transport Regulating Authority (BRTA) office to get a driving license or a fitness certificate of their vehicles. Eid-ul-Azha is approaching. Thousands of people will leave the capital and other cities and towns to celebrate the Eid. Who can tell how many people will die in road accidents on the occasion? Is there any assurance or guarantee that drivers would refrain from rash driving or mad competition causing deaths?  

Sharp rise in the number of road accidents in recent days speaks volumes about the blatant disregard of transport owners, drivers and of the administration for the safety and security of the passengers or of others who have to use the roads. A number of reasons behind the highway accidents have been identified. Over the past few years many recommendations aimed at reducing road accidents remained unimplemented. Many sleep deprived drivers are seen at the steering wheels. This is another of the causes of road accidents.  

One of the prime causes of the deaths on highways is the long hours that drivers have to be at the wheel without any relief or rest. It taxes on their nerves and hampers their ability to concentrate on the road. Such accidents could be easily prevented by changing the driver after three to four hours of driving on the highway. The relatives of the dead due to the road accidents must be adequately compensated and the injured should be treated properly.  The process of issuing driving license must be made foolproof to ensure that only the properly skilled drivers can have it.