Road crashes, chaos, carelessness …
Road to disaster. Photo: Foysal Mahmud/ Drik News
WE mourn with heavy heart the death of nine students of Chittagong College in a road accident in Bandarban area last week. The unskilled driver of the bus failed to keep control of the vehicle on the remote winding road and it eventually plunged to the gorge below. Today, everyone is mourning the deaths but it seems no one was wiser before embarking on the fateful journey. I guess no teacher or guardian wanted to know whether the driver had driven on that road before, or wanted to see the driver's license or find out how skillful he was in negotiating treacherous bends on the hilly road. No one perhaps bothered to find out about the fitness certificate of the vehicle or check if the brakes were functioning well. No one perhaps warned the driver about the dangers on the road and tell him to be extra cautious. As we express our deep sorrow, we at the same time want to ask ourselves as well as everyone in the administration some pertinent questions concerning the state of our roads and highways, and which authority actually oversees monitoring of thousands of vehicles plying on those roads. We want to know who makes sure that unskilled drivers do not venture on difficult roads, or for that matter, on any road with passenger buses. We want to know who are the people who issue fitness certificates to old and dilapidating vehicles. We also want to ask why cycle-rickshaws, bi-cycles, rickshaw-vans, "korimons" (power tillers turned mini human and goods haulers) and CNG auto-rickshaws frantically compete with heavy vehicles like inter-city passenger buses, covered wagons and trucks for space on the narrow Chittagong-Dhaka highway? On a trip to Chittagong and then on to Cox's Bazar by road last week I counted various types of smaller vehicles plying recklessly on the highway, never bothering about the danger they exposed themselves, as well the passengers of other vehicles, to in the process. To my horror I noticed that on many occasions, drivers of the smaller vehicles refused to go off the path of the heavy bus I was in. At the last moment, the driver of my vehicle had to apply its brakes and allow the CNG or "korimon" to pass by safely. Cyclists and rickshaw drivers also paid no heed to the horns of the bus and kept plying through one side of the concrete road, leaving only a narrow strip for the heavy Volvo bus to pass. Now, if that is not chaos and recklessness then what is? The Cox's Bazar road is actually a virtual death trap where indiscipline, chaos and carelessness rule supreme. There are bazaars after every two miles right by the highway where hundreds of people and children walk around and cross the road at will, showing little respect to the passing vehicles. The highway also has too many sharp turns and twists where it is impossible to see the vehicle that is coming from the other side. I guess it is sheer good luck that more lives are not lost on that road on a daily basis. The other virtual death trap is Dhaka- Mymensingh road that goes via Trishal. This road takes dozens of lives every month and yet we see no activity on the part of the administration to take some useful measures. The road also has some turns and twists that need to be straightened through redesigning. We suggest, take all the shops and bazaars one plot inside and keep the sides facing the road shop and market free so that small vehicles cannot stop or pick up passengers or goods, thereby blocking the highway. In fact, all the highways of the country need to be redesigned to make them safer and easier to drive on. Alongside redesigning, the administration will have to create or reform laws to prohibit construction of shops or markets by the sides of the highways and prohibit plying of small vehicles. The administration will have to install highway-patrolling system to monitor violation of these laws and severely punish the violators. Highway patrolling cops do not need expensive cars. They can ride a passenger bus and watch the roads from inside. If they find a runaway vehicle, a phone call will warn a cop up ahead who will stop the rogue driver and book him for dangerous driving. But the last word is, the laws will have to be implemented without fear or favour. I often wonder why no driver or owner of a vehicle who gave appointment to an unskilled driver has been given exemplary punishment for taking many human lives. Why do owners never come forward to hand over a killer driver to the police? Why do owners not offer money to the bereaved families of victims killed or injured under their vehicles because of the fault of the drivers? On the contrary, they reportedly get in touch with some corrupt police officials of the local police station and prepare the case in such a way whereby the owners or the drivers get away with total impunity. The government should introduce a law that will force transport company(s) to pay for the full treatment and rehabilitation of people injured in accidents involving their vehicles. If voluntary social organisations can come forward to do so why can't transport companies do it?
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