Shawdesh Desk:

Road safety remains elusive a year after the countrywide student protests that erupted after the death of two Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College students in an accident because of reckless driving at Kurmitola in Dhaka on July 29, 2018.

Most of the demands for road safety, made by the students who had held protests for more than a week across the country, remain unimplemented despite positive assurances from the authorities.

The authorities, however, have claimed that the situation has improved following different initiatives taken by the government in last one year.

On the other hand, road safety experts have asserted that the situation on roads has deteriorated as the number of fatal accidents increased over the period and nothing worth mentioning has been achieved.

Many directives were issued and recommendations made but there were no significant and visible initiatives to implement them, they added.

Thousands of students took to streets after their two fellows were killed when a reckless driver drove a Jabal-e-Noor company bus off the road and ploughed through a crowd while competing with another bus of the same company.

Amid an utter anarchy in the road sector for long, the students demanded highest punishment for the bus drivers responsible for the killing of the two, establishing footbridges and taking safety measures for safe movement of students, establishing speed-breakers in accident-prone areas including in front of the schools and colleges.

They also demanded taking all responsibilities by the government of the families of the deceased and injured, compelling the buses to carry students, half fare for the students, not allowing buses without fitness and driving by any unlicensed driver at any place of the country and ban on carrying passengers by public transports in excess of their capacity.

The prime minister on June 25, 2018 gave directives to ensure drivers’ rest every five hours, to employ alternate drivers for long-distance vehicles, training and resting facilities for drivers and their assistants, use of seatbelts while travelling, and abiding by the traffic signals.

Most of these demands and directives still remain on paper.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court began the trial of two owners, two drivers and two assistants of Jabal-e-Noor in July this year and the next date of the case is August 22 for the testimony by the Investigation Officer.

In another development, the High Court on Wednesday last asked the owners of 4.79 lakh unfit vehicles running across the country to get fitness certificates for the vehicles from the Bangladesh Road Transports Authority within two months.

Earlier on April 28, a committee headed by former shipping minister and influential transport sector workers-owners leader Shajahan Khan submitted as many as111 recommendations to prime minister Sheikh Hasina to bring back order on the roads and reduce the number of road accidents.

According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, in June this year, across the country, 40.57 lakh registered motor vehicles were run by around 22 lakh drivers with valid licences.

The transport operators, therefore, have to struggle to get alternate drivers, and the long-route drivers are yet to get the proposed resting places.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths on roads has increased as violation of traffic rules by all sections of people continued across the country, including reckless driving, overtaking, overloading and operation of unfit vehicles.

The lack of public transports and facilities for commuters has exacerbated the problem.

The government on September 20 last year passed the Road Transport Act, 2018 in the wake of the student agitation for road safety, which is yet to be implemented.

Since July last year, the police have observed a countrywide traffic week and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police traffic months and weeks.

Within seven months of their countrywide movement for safe roads, students restarted agitating after a Suprabhat Pvt Ltd bus ran over a Bangladesh University of Professionals student on the Pragati Sarani at Badda in the capital on March 19, 2019.

Besides, as showed by police statistics prepared based on first information reports, yearly fatalities in road accidents increased in Bangladesh in 2018.

According to the statistics, 2018 saw 2,635 people killed and 1,920 injured in 2,609 traffic accidents, the previous year 2,513 killed and 1,898 injured in 2,562 accidents, while the year before witnessed 2,463 killed and 2,134 injured in 2,566 accidents.

In the first four months of the current year, 427 people were killed and 658 injured in 848 accidents across the country, the police data shows.

According to Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s Accident Research Institute, which compiles statistics on road accidents from newspaper reports, 2,408 people were killed and 3,947 injured in 2,177 accidents up to July 20 this year.

Road Transport and Highways Division secretary Md Nazrul Islam told New Age on Sunday that in recent years the number of vehicles had increased on the roads under the Local Government Engineering Department and the Roads and Highways Department.

‘If we analyse the number of increased vehicles, new roads and accidents then we will find that the road safety situation has improved in recent times,’ he said.

BRTA chairman Md Moshiar Rahman said that they had taken many initiatives including holding awareness programmes, publishing advertisements and operation of mobile courts.

He claimed that the rate of accidents had gone down though the number was still high as passenger-laden three-wheeler vehicles still got on highways illegally, causing fatal accidents.

Professor M Anwar Hossian, who headed a nine-member expert sub-committee on road safety in 2011, told this daily that he did not see any big change in the road safety situation in last one year.

He pointed out that Obaidul Quader, the road transport and bridges minister, was simultaneously working as the general secretary of Bangladesh Awami League, who also got sick this year for a considerable period of time.

This ministry should have a full-time strong leadership as it was not possible on Obaidul’s part to give much time to the road sector, he said, adding, ‘The government lacks commitment to improving the situation.’

Accident Research Institute director Professor Mizanur Rahman said that considering the data the situation had deteriorated as the number of fatal accidents increased this year.

He also said that though many directives were issued and recommendations made (with regard to road safety) there was no visible initiative to implement them.

Besides making people aware, the authorities should increase the number of facilities like public transports and enhance the road network to improve the situation, he added.

The Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh in a statement on Sunday demanded immediate implementation of the students’ demands.