Road crashes kill 34 every day, says WB survey
Lax monitoring and non-implementation of the laws on reckless driving have made both highways and streets death traps where at least 34 people fall prey to deadly crashes every day.
Road-safety experts blame successive governments for not paying heed to fatal accidents, which have claimed mostly working young people, causing untold miseries to their families. Perpetrators of the crashes have long been enjoying some sort of impunity, thanks to the authorities’ reluctance and the loopholes in the existing laws.
Besides, the associations of drivers and owners of commercially-run long-route vehicles have put the government on pressure whenever it has tried to tighten punishment to offenders.
Internationally acclaimed Bangladeshi filmmaker Tareque Masud and private-run channel ATN News’ Chief Executive Officer Mishuk Munier along with three others are the latest victims of road fatality. They met the tragic accident on Dhaka-Aricha Highway in Manikganj on Saturday.
Reckless driving took away at least five others in northern district Pabna the same day.
An expert at the Accident Research Institute of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology said that the government’s inaction is mainly responsible for these fatalities.
“Given the rate of accidents on Bangladesh’s highways and streets, the situation has gone uncontrolled,” Shamsul Hoque of the ARI told daily sun.
A World Bank estimate says some 34 people die in Bangladesh every day because of road crashes. The government count, however, puts the figure at one-third of the WB estimate.
“The government has to prepare a strategic plan to reduce accidents. But it is yet to make any preparations to address this issue,” Hoque said.
He also blamed weak monitoring by the law enforcement agencies and lack of maintenance by the authorities concerned for leaving highways free for deadly race of vehicles on long routes.
The accidents have taken a toll of over $1 billion on the national economy.
Members of the parliamentary standing committee on communications ministry and a few lawmakers blasted Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain for his inaction. The committee had put forward a set of recommendations for ensuring road safety, but the ministry failed to carry out those in more than a year’s time.
“We do not understand why the communications ministry has failed to carry out recommendations for upgrading the road network and ensure safety,” committee member Golam Mowla Rony said.
Venting his frustration over the ministry’s performance, he said, “The communications ministry is filled with corrupt officials and they are busy with looting public money instead of ensuring people’s safety.”
Available data of police shows that 12 persons are killed and 33 injured daily on average in road accident while a World Bank data shows that 34 people are killed every day.
At least 1,400 people were killed and several hundreds were injured in the last seven months, according to newspaper reports.
The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and police estimate that around 4,000 to 5,000 people are killed in road accidents annually. According to a 2009 World Health Organisation estimate, the death toll from accident is 20,050.
About 100 people were killed in road accidents across the country in July alone this year. The accidents include the tragic one which claimed the lives of at least 44 school students at Mirsarai in Chittagong on 11 July.
The World Bank conducted a countrywide survey on 90,000 families in 2003, explicating the damage of road accidents, which reveals dire consequences of 12,000 people’s deaths averaging 34 a day and leaving 25,000 injured and damage worth $1 billion.
Researchers said about 70 percent road accidents occurred in rural areas and nearly 50 percent on national and regional highways.
Heavy vehicles, including trucks and buses, account for 60 percent fatal accidents, they said.
A recent survey of the ARI reveals that 80 percent of those who died in accidents are aged 5-45 years, 53 percent are pedestrians and 21 percent are under 16, having impacts economically and socially.
According to the survey, 50 percent of the victims died on the spot within 15 minutes of the accidents, receiving injuries to the head and chest leading to haemorrhaging.
Almost 35 percent died from chest and head injuries within the next two hours and others died of putrefying or amputation within the next 30 days.
Courtesy of Daily Sun
