What to do?

In the face of public protest, the Dhaka North City Corporation started building a speed breaker on Kalshi Link Road yesterday, a day after a female student was killed in a road accident there.

Since 10:30am, several hundred locals had blocked the road, stopping vehicular movement for at least three and a half hours. They put a two-hour blockade on Wednesday evening as well after Sharmin Akhter, 18, of Manikdi was run over by a covered-van around noon.

Local residents said they were demanding a speed breaker there because the area came to be known as accident-prone in the last one and a half years.

"One or two accidents take place every week here," said a local, wishing anonymity. He added that the accidents happened because of speeding vehicles.

In the same area, another person was killed in an accident during Ramadan, and the local residents grew restless to have a speed breaker there.

They even had started digging the road but the authorities stopped them, saying they would build it of their own.

However, an analysis of The Daily Star reports shows unplanned speed breakers, sometimes built by the locals to prevent accidents, are often the cause of accidents.

Though DNCC started building a speed bump on the road, its officials could not be contacted immediately to know whether the location was appropriate for building one.

A DREAM SHATTERED

A meritorious student and the eldest of three siblings, Sharmin had made her parents dream big. She achieved GPA 5 in all subjects in the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination this year and was waiting to enrol in a graduate programme.

"She dreamt to be a teacher," said her father Sham Mia, a retired sergeant of Bangladesh Army.

But the scourge of road accidents that shatters the dreams of countless families in the country every year struck hers too.

The accident took place around 12:30pm on Wednesday, and the 18-year-old, who got married last year, succumbed to injuries in the evening at Dhaka Combined Military Hospital (CMH).

She was going to Government Titumir College to complete the admission process.

Meanwhile, police could neither detect the vehicle nor arrest the driver yet. A case was filed on Wednesday night against unnamed persons, said police.

Sharmin was buried at a local graveyard.