Editorial
ARI's findings
Act on the findings
Some very notable statistics have emerged from the research and the findings thereof of BUET's Accident Research Institute on road accidents in Bangladesh. Although the police figure of road accidents shows a downtrend, with which the ARI differs and feels that the number of road accidents is rising, nearly 2,500 deaths in 2011 alone, is entirely unacceptable.
While it is extremely off-putting to learn that more than 50,000 were killed in road accident between 1998 and 2010 and more than 20,000 injured it is frustrating to learn that simple safety measures like speed breakers and road dividers, were they in place, could have helped avert thirty percent of the accidents. Apart from that, buses and trucks are illegally modified to increase their load capacity, which increase their potential to cause accident too.
The fact is that one does not need to be an expert to tell that our road-safety factors are reduced tremendously due to the absence of dividers on the highways, and that actually accounts for the nearly thirty percent of highway accidents and deaths, as a result of head-on and rear-end collisions as per ARI findings. In terms of numbers it comes to nearly 15,000 killed and 7,000 injured over a period between 1998 and 2010. And a layman can tell an illegally configured bus or truck from a distance.
And that begs the question. May we ask when the danger is so apparent why is it that the communications ministry or the R&H department have remained so unconcerned for the safety of travelers?
While millions are being spent on the widening of roads and making new ones, traveling on the major highways remain a dangerous proposition because of this and other factors. And these factors are well within the capacity of the government to address. For instance there is no reason why illegally modified vehicle should ever be allowed on the roads and why unqualified persons are given license to drive, nay to kill?
Regrettably, there appears to be no substantive move to address these issues. One would hope that the findings would be considered in right earnest and acted upon with due diligence by the concerned authorities.
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