Dozens of families of the victims in traffic accidents, government officials, social organisations and university teachers in a rally on Friday said that lack of proper enforcement of the existing law was a major cause for reckless driving that took a heavy toll on human lives every year.
Families United Against Road Accidents, a platform of family members of accident victims, organised the rally and a human chain in front of the National Press Club to create awareness and launch a campaign against frequent road accidents. They also brought out a procession led by lawmaker Tarana Halim.
Referring to Thursday’ violent incident on the Dhaka University campus over a traffic accident that left a student injured, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology’s Accident Research Institute director Shamsul Haque told New Age that people blamed only the drivers for accidents but not the system which was largely responsible.
Transport owners, the police and licensing authorities have a role to play in addressing the drivers’problems and motivating them so that they avoid reckless driving.
Stressing the need for awareness building among both the drivers and pedestrians, Tarana Halim demanded amendments to the law concerned making the offence of causing road accident non-bailable.
‘The country’s laws provide for 10-year imprisonment for killing a tiger but only three-year jail term for killing people in a road accident,’ she said.
The government of HM Ershad amended the law in 1985 with a provision for three years’ imprisonment as the highest punishment for killing people in a traffic accident. Before that the highest punishment was seven-year jail term, the rally was told.
Speakers urged the government to increase punishment for reckless driving that caused fatalities in order to check reckless driving.
In 2009, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority’s Accident Monitoring Cell recorded 3,381 traffic accidents across the country that caused 2,958 deaths and 2,223 serious injuries.
The human chain urged the government to reconstitute Bangladesh Road Transport Authority to check issuance of illegal licences.
At least 54 per cent of road accident victims are pedestrians, and the main reason for the accidents is reckless driving.
A number of family-members of the victims of road accidents, including the father of Hamim Sheikh, who was killed in a road accident on February 3, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University professor Nazrul Islam, who lost his wife Rowshan Ara Begum on January 18, and Samia Halim, who lost her 20-year-old son Saif Ahmed Arnab in November, along with others, attended the programme.
Ekram Ahmed, convener of Families United Against Road Accidents, urged the lawmakers to raise the issue in parliament and press for amendment to the law.
The Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan president, Abu Naser Khan, said the government agencies concerned should take stern action against rundown vehicles and fake licence providers to curb traffic accidents.
