SEVEN
Photo: Palash Khan
Life here apparently has no value. Often no one is held accountable for killings in road accidents, in political clashes or during campus violence. Authorities concerned are reluctant about carrying out prompt probes to find out the facts especially in case of road accidents. It is only when a road accident becomes a news headline and has caused enough public outrage that the high-ups then form probe bodies, visit spots and victims' families. The death of seven school children in the March 16 Comilla road crash could not move political or government high-ups. The district administration and law enforcers have not yet formed any committee to probe the accident. They have decided to carry out a regular case investigation by police into the incident. They did not bother engaging any safety engineer to ascertain whether the accident happened due to truck driver's fault or any mechanical fault in the vehicle or faulty design of the road. The highway police is investigating the case but even 10 days after the accident, they have not been able to arrest the owner of the killer truck or its driver. Generally, after such a fatal road accident government forms a high powered probe body involving safety engineers or other experts to find out why and how the accident occurred. The truck, running on the wrong side of Kasba-Noakhali highway at Hatimara in Monoharganj of Comilla hit the rickshaw-van on the road around 1:30pm, leaving seven children dead and three others injured. The schoolchildren, aged between seven and 10, were students of Natherpatua Modern Academy in the area.
Now there is no way to know what caused the accident. Photo: Palash Khan
Former chief of Accident Research Institute [ARI] at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology [Buet] Prof Shamsul Hoque says it would be difficult to find the reasons behind the accident if a probe body including a safety engineer was not formed immediately and a prompt visit to the accident site was not made by its members. If a safety engineer makes instant visit to the accident spot the engineer can observe the termination position of the ill-fated vehicles, circumstantial evidences and can talk to witnesses. The engineer can recreate the chain of events that lead to the accident. Prof Shamsul Haque said adding, the engineer in this way can ascertain the causes behind the accident.
He said police usually carry out investigation keeping certain sections of penal codes in their mind and therefore they (police) often mention reckless driving, lane violation or rash driving as causes behind accidents though alongside the mentioned ones there are other causes behind accidents.
He further adds that for accurate investigation, the accident spot should be cordoned off immediately after the incident to keep the scene intact but such practice is absent in the country.
During a visit to the spot on March 18 afternoon it was found that locals flocked the spot, touching remains of the truck and the van. They were also stepping on the marks created by the vehicle on the road and its edges. Obviously important marks of the accident were getting erased.
There is no consolation for the grieving mothers. Photo: Palash Khan
Elderly Ambia Begum, a witness to the accident says "I heard a bang and noticed that the spot became blurred with dust. I ran to the opposite side of the road and found faces of the children inside the damaged van covered with blood and dust…I could not recall anything else as I lost consciousness after seeing such a scene." Ambia adds that there were no other vehicles plying on the road at that moment so she could immediately cross the road.There was no pothole, curve or vision obstacle due to roadside bushes or trees on that segment of the road that might have caused the road accident. And according to witness's version there were no other vehicles the killer truck might have overtaken and caused the accident.
Amid such a situation Deputy Commissioner of Comilla Reazul Ahsan says they have decided to leave the investigation to the police. He adds that the authorities had not formed any probe body as a case with a police station had been lodged in this connection. Contacted, superintendent of Comilla Highway Police (East) Rezaul Karim said usually the district administration, not local police, forms a probe body after such a fatal accident.
Police were carrying out regular investigation into the case filed with Monoharganj Police Station for this, he added.
Police are yet to identify the truck driver and owner of the truck that rammed into the school van. Once the truck driver or its owner gets identified, it will be ascertained whether the driver had valid driving license or whether the truck was fit to ply on the roads.
Meanwhile, everyday, road accidents are taking precious lives. It is not just reckless driving that kills but the unacceptable apathy of the authorities to stop this kind of murder through thorough, prompt investigations and punishment of the culprits.
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