Editorial
Reckless driving takes toll of five-year olds
A special committee needed to address the sharp deterioration in road safety
WITHIN hours of each other, two school-going children, Hamim Sheikh and Sujon, both chillingly five-year old, lost their lives in accidents, one near the Kakrail intersection in front of Willes Little Flower School, and the other on Dhaka-Mymensigh highway in Gazipur sending shock waves throughout the country. The mother accompanying the first child and the second child's elder brother who was with him sustained serious injuries.
The way the child was run over by a speeding bus in the first incident, that too at an intersection where traffic was supposed to be slowest, more so, because of the proximity to a school, and the over-speeding that caused the second, have given rise to a number of questions in the public mind about traffic management and some of its crucial aspects. It should set off the alarm bell about the new low road safety has touched in the city streets and busy highways.
The thought of such large bodied transports plying without fitness certificates topped off by mostly helper-turned drivers operating with fake licences, without side or rear view mirrors and blindly following the instructions of helpers is as atrocious as it is outrageous. All of this is a ringing indictment on inefficiency, corruption and malpractice in the regulatory authorities.
It is the job of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) to certify the fitness of the vehicles and that of the drivers. And the traffic police and whatever we have by way of highway police, have on-the-ground responsibilities to check on things vital to road safety. How can they turn a blind eye to the consequences of some of their actions? Of course, the BRTA is over-worked and so is the traffic police authority but that should not lead to a willful neglect of duty or any resigned attitude to given obligations. We believe, unless the tyranny of vested groups having stake in deceitfully authorising transports and drivers to operate is stymied, the ills will continue to eat into the vitals of the system of traffic regulation, surveillance and management will continue.
The steep decline in road safety is nothing short of transport terrorism. We suggest that the relevant parliamentary standing committee in consultation with citizens groups and expert bodies set up a special committee to recommend ways and means to re-equip and reform the traffic regulatory .
Our heart goes out in sympathy for the accident victims and the bereaved. It is time the government arranged to compensate for the losses by having the transport owners pay up and punish those responsible for the accidents.
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