Abu Talha Akash: The word road accident has become like three meals of rice and fish to us. Every day thousands of people across the country are living with thousands of lives, deaths, tears the pain of losing relatives, but there is no way to curb this accident! So this is why the government has so many laws to prevent road accidents, even after taking so many steps, why is it not possible to prevent accidents? Why so many road accidents in the country? What is the background behind it?

Elias Kanchan, leader of the `Nirapad Sharak Chai` movement on National Safe Roads Day last year in 2020, said, "We need to not only enforce the law, but also force people to obey the law on the roads. Our goal, we claim, was to create awareness among the people if a day for safe roads could be observed nationally. Even the government recognizes and recognizes this day in 2016 by supporting and respecting our demand and it is being celebrated every year with due state dignity." The activists of this were `Nirapad Sharak Chai` movement. According to his chief, we can easily see that he is not talking about infrastructural development even in the current context of the country, but he is emphasizing on the issue of greater awareness and change in the mindset of the people.

So in today`s discussion I am specifically blaming three things as the main cause of death on the road! I will even try to discuss that. There are three issues-

1. Our mental problems are neglected.

2. Lack of proper enforcement of the law.

3. Syndicate trade with transport.

Let`s discuss the problem of mentality and negligence at the beginning. On March 26, 18 innocent people lost their lives in a horrific accident on the Rajshahi-Dhaka highway in Kapashia area. According to a local eyewitness, "Before the accident, a black micro Hanif Paribahan bus crossed the Rang side and drove off. The Hanif Paribahan bus plunged into a ditch on the side of the road towards Katakhali police station. This set the micro on fire. After a while, everything in Laguna caught fire and was reduced to ashes."

If we look at another accident that happened in recent times, that is In Kaliganj area of ​​Jhenaidah district. According to eyewitnesses, a Kushtia-bound Gorai Paribahan bus lost control and overturned on the highway while overtaking another bus. At that moment, a truck speeding from the opposite direction hit the middle of the bus. The front and middle part of the bus is twisted. Nine people died on the spot and later the death toll rose to 14. At least 20-25 more people were injured. There were no infrastructural problems. The tragic incident took place due to the driver`s high speed and reckless overtaking.

If we look at one of the more recent road accidents in the state of road chaos, we see the tragic death of some students of ShaheedRamizUddinCantonmentCollege in the airport area of ​​the capital on July 29, 2016, the death of Rajib who lost his hand in a dispute between two buses. Road infrastructure was not responsible for all the accidents in question. Responsible for this are the reckless speed of the bus drivers and the mentality of going ahead and unbridled rivalry.

Now let`s come to the issue of lack of proper application of the law. We often hear from many people returning from abroad that if they go out on the roads of that country, they can`t even imagine going out on the roads without obeying the driving license and traffic laws. The main reason for this is that after breaking the law, they don`t get a chance to escape from their uncle`s phone call or two or four hundred tk. For which they all follow proper laws and all those countries are successful in preventing road accidents.

According to one report, 35% of the total road accidents in the country are caused by motorcycles, where the driver does not have a driving license. Again, in the case of issuing licenses by the licensing agency BRTA, incompetent, incompetent drivers are being issued licenses every day for a certain amount of money through various brokers. All these licensed people are working as the cannon of the accident on the road!

PPRC executive chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman said in his speech at a program in 2014, "Infrastructural progress has been made on our roads and it is visible but we are lagging behind in the place of good governance". Therefore, we can reduce road deaths by ensuring proper enforcement of the law in all places starting from licens.Then let`s come to `Syndicate trade on transport`. We occasionally learn about the welfare of the media, the issue of banning battery-powered autorickshaws, the risky Nasimon-Karimon; The reason for this is that these are the hallmarks of road accidents. But the question is, if these are to be banned, then why are they not banned from being marketed while selling them in the market with a license? None of us know the answer! But if the marketing of these is banned, then the drivers will not be able to bring it from Mars and take it out on the road! In fact, the powerful syndicate is responsible for this.

Besides, lakhs of tk are being embezzled in the name of municipality development fee, road development fee, labor development fee in different parts of the country. For this, if a car is taken out on the road, the driver is pressing the issue of earning all this money on his head. As a result of which they are reckless in speed and the death procession on the road is constantly getting bigger, the road infrastructure is not responsible for this. In 2016, the students showed the places in the manor of our road I `Nirapad Sharak Andolon` / `Safe Road Movement`.  According to BUET statistics, 25,000 people died in road accidents from July 2015-2016, where 53% of accidents occur due to excessive speed of the vehicle, 36% due to reckless attitude of the driver and 10% due to faulty and environmental and infrastructural problems of the vehicle. Despite having overbridges in many busy and important places in the country, we cross the road without using it. Although there are many places where it is not, but are we making proper use of what we have? If we citizens do not get out of the car without a specific stop including the passenger canopy, will they be able to pick up and drop off the car by stopping the car somewhere? Never! So only if we can solve the problems of the three issues in question can we prevent the 10% of infrastructural deaths that happen naturally in every country or we can tolerate these road deaths. But even then our population is constantly increasing; the number of vehicles is also increasing so the problems that we are facing in time need to be solved quickly. But we believe that if every citizen of the country obeys the traffic laws and walks consciously on the road, then maybe we will be able to send him to the museum one day. But will we really see that achievement-free road as an achievement?

Author: Abu Talha Akash is the Organizational Secretary of Bangladesh Tarun Column