Poor maintenance, lax oversight make highways risky

Weak monitoring by the law enforcing agencies and lack of maintenance by road authorities leave the highways free for deadly race of long route vehicles, causing fatal accidents almost every day.
A few weigh machines and speed detectors, set at different points on highways, remain either out of order or useless, and the highway police fail to keep track of long-haul vehicles, said a source in the highway police.
The officers-in-charge of the highway police stations are supposed to monitor the vehicles and drivers using the machines.
‘But they just weigh the vehicles and allow them to go away after taking money from the drivers for extra weights,’ the highly-placed source in the specialised police force told New Age.
Passengers allege that drivers care little about the road signs and speed limits, and get engaged in deadly race of overtaking even on risky turns and bridges.
‘The race becomes dreadful when they go for overtaking, ignoring all the driving rules,’ said a passenger who had experienced such a journey Friday night.
Road safety experts believe that many of the fatal accidents could be avoided if speed limit was enforced and dangerous overtaking checked.
Overloading, overtaking, crossing speed limit and faulty road management are four major reasons for fatal accidents on highways, they identified.
The highways, spotted with potholes and having no dividers in most places, do not allow even a speed limit of 70- kilometre per hour, but long-route drivers tend to raise the speed over 100-kilometre violating the road signs, they said.
Road accidents kill about 4,000 people every year and leave roughly 25,000 people injured, according to police statistics.
Research specialist at the Accident Research Centre of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Shamsul Hoque said, ‘Unlimited speed is the only reason for accidents on public roads.’
He cited a 2003 World Bank’s community-based survey that revealed that nearly 12,000 people were killed per year due to road accidents.
‘We do not have any healthy planning for roads. Accidents occur as unskilled drivers are allowed to go for deadly competition on roads and play with the life of passengers,’ he said.
Police recorded at least 546 highway accidents in 2008 in the Chittagong region alone.
Highways are also swamped with domestic animals and used as a ground for drying straws and grains, while large inter-district coaches have to make their ways through small vehicles and find it difficult to steer smoothly and safely along stretches of the roads, squeezed by marketplaces.
The highway police say they are not properly equipped to patrol along some 8,500 kilometres of national and regional highways and roads to ensure passengers’ safety and enforce speed limit for vehicles.
This special police wing, created in 2005, is supposed to control vehicle speed on the highways and check over-loading and documents of the vehicles, besides ensuring safety of the travellers.
‘We ask the drivers to go by the traffic rules. It is really hard to monitor the drivers if they cross speed limit on empty roads beyond our sight,’ highway police deputy inspector general Sohrab Hossain told New Age on Saturday.
‘The police take action against the law breakers only if they are caught,’ he said.
Though the highway police stations are equipped with speed detectors, speed limit cannot be enforced due to lack of manpower, the highway police boss said.
Asked about the weigh machines, he said the Roads and Highway Department was supposed to look into the matter as all the machines went out of order.
He, however, denied the allegations that police members allowed over-loaded vehicles to go away after taking bribes.

Courtesy of NewAgebd