Editorial
The bus plunge tragedy
Another reflection of blasé attitude to highway safety
Any unnatural death diminishes humanity but when fatalities are claimed in a drove by a highway accident that was basically preventable, the sense of grief and loss is all the more pronounced. A bus from Khulna, bound for Barisal, was carrying passengers almost treble its capacity, disaster-prone by that one single factor. But more was lying in wait. As it took the rundown diversion road in Madaripur the driver lost control getting one of the vehicle's front wheels stuck in a crater-like pothole. The next thing was a plunge upside down killing 15 and injuring 50, many of whom seriously.
Short stretches of diversion roads are booby traps. They have overshot many a deadline for a closer as the highway repairs themselves procrastinate. The bus overloaded and speeding the driver naturally could have very little control over his vehicle, and to top it off there was the rundown diversion road to negotiate. So all odds were stacked against the passengers.
Reckless driving of overloaded vehicles even in precarious road condition is a criminal offence, no doubt. But is it the transport operator who is to be blamed alone? Actually, leaving them to their devices is no less culpable an offence on the part of host of authorities. They include BRTA, transport owners, various unions and associations, road or diversion engineers and contractors and, above all, those who are supposed to be there to enforce highway safety rules viz. highway patrols conspicuous by their virtual absence.
Basically, human lives are undervalued as long as they don't belong to our near and dear ones. That is where the approach to highway safety goes wrong. When Buet put annual death toll at 12,000 and those injured at 35,000 due to accidents, going by number of police FIRs for 2011 it was only 836. The transport ministry's figure differs from those of Buet. As we get our figures right for an appropriate mitigation strategy to be evolved focused on prevention, let's go all-out for a mass awareness programme to sensitise people about their own responsibility in avoiding risks on roads.
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