Says Ilias Kanchan
No killer driver has ever been brought to justice in nearly two decades with every successive government taking benefit of massive extortion from the transport sector, said a pioneer campaigner for road safety.
“I have not seen a single killer driver being punished in seventeen years,” said Ilias Kanchan, a popular film star, who has been carrying a vigorous campaign for road safety following the tragic demise of his beloved wife in a crash in 1993.
His wife Jahanara Kanchan was travelling on a microbus on October 22 along with their two children to Bandarban where Kanchan was taking part in a shooting.
The driver increased the speed high whenever he found a chance.
“Jahanara warned him against going reckless,” said Kanchan, “But the driver instead of paying any heed got irritated.”
She was sitting right behind the driver. When a speeding truck from opposite direction was about to collide head-on with the microbus, the driver turned front of the vehicle to save himself.
The truck hit where Jahanara was sitting and crashed her to death. Others including the children on board escaped death miraculously.
“My family life was shattered to ruins in the blink of an eye,” said Kanchan.
The same year he launched a countrywide campaign fashioned Nirapad Sharak Chai (We Demand Safe Roads) to create awareness among the common people, vehicle drivers and owners and policymakers about road safety.
Asked what difference his movement has brought in making the roads safe, Kanchan said, “Virtually nothing.”
He said 47 accidents are caused by every 1,000 motor vehicles in Bangladesh, while the rate is two or three in the developed countries.
As long as the law enforcers and politicians take financial benefits from the transport sector, unauthorised and incompetent drivers will continue thriving at the cost of public life and safety, he observed.
According to Kanchan, road accidents and casualties in the capital, though bogged down with perennial traffic congestion, occur regularly due to reckless driving.
Private owners of such public vehicles operating across the capital employ drivers either on daily or trip basis. This makes the drivers reckless for making money with as many trips as possible and often they end up in accidents causing fatal injuries and casualties to pedestrians and other road users.
More than 90 percent of those drivers lack any education and proper training.
Traffic police are hardly seen checking the rundown buses and likes and the fake drivers, said Kanchan.
In 2002, the government declared October 22 as Safe Road Day as a result of his campaign.
Kanchan however regretted that the communications ministry and National Road Safety Council do not observe the day in an enthusiastic manner.
He wrote to the UN general secretary in 2004 to declare it as an international day for road safety. The UN took a theme as “Road safety is no Accident” for the world health day for that year.
The general sectary however said it required governmental persuasion for the declaration of an international day. But the government is playing an apathetic role in this regard too, added Kanchan.
Demands of the movement, said Kanchan, include government initiative to create a pool of drivers with proper training and education, proper law and enforcement, making the vehicle owners responsible for accidents, incorporating lessons on accidents in the textbooks and building awareness.
Nirapad Sharak Chai that has around 100 units at district and upazila levels, organises public rallies, annual grand rally and advocacy programmes with the policymakers.
