Danger on the highway

The traffic police authorities complain that they are powerless to prevent reckless driving and the dangerous overloading of commercial vehicles as these belong to or are controlled by influential politicians, officials and businessmen. Then there is the transport employees' trade unionism coming into play. They claim that no sooner do they act to detain offenders than they are ordered by their superiors to let them go.

Indeed, so bold the drivers have become, the police claim, that they routinely refuse to stop when ordered to do so and even go so far as to try to run over traffic sergeants attempting to apprehend them.

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The problem is further compounded by extreme scarcity of resources and personnel and the fact that Bangladesh Road Transport Authority officials cannot act independently of the deputy commissioners in any locality.

For their part, the drivers and owners of commercial vehicles argue that the police are guilty of widespread extortion and they are forced to overload their vehicles to meet the cost of this extortion.

There is doubtless a fair amount of truth to both sides. It is true that political patronage is often an obstacle to policing, and by the same token, it is also true that police extortion and toll collection are serious problems.

It is now the responsibility of the government to step in and find a way out of the morass. The difficulties enumerated by either side appear to be easily resolvable with a determined effort on the part of the government. What is needed is for the government to focus its attention on this matter and ensure enforcement of the law so that death and destruction that afflict our highways can be curtailed.