People reluctant to follow the rules, deaths on the rise

The pedestrians do not use the pedestrian footbridge to cross the expressway. The drivers often breach the speed limit. Ppassengers are picked from any random point along the expressway instead of the designated bus stops. The authorities’ vigilance to stop these discrepancies is not up to the mark either.

This is the scenario on the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur highway, the first-ever expressway of the country. As a result casualties on this 55-kilometre highway from Dhaka’s Jatrabari to Bhanga in Faridpur are rising. Although this road connected to the Padma Bridge has brought about revolutionary changes to the lives of people of the country's southern region in terms of communication, it is claiming lives one after another. As many as 94 people have been killed in some 260 road accidents on the expressway since its inauguration.

There are 21 pedestrian footbridges for to cross the Bangabandhu Expressway. There is also a 3 ft railing to prevent people from crossing directly instead of using the footbridge. However, people were seen crossing the road here and there at whim from 10: 00 am to 2:30 pm on Friday on the Bhanga to Zajira stretch of the expressway. There was no visible monitoring to prevent this.

A woman carrying three bags was seen getting off a bus on the eastern side of the expressway near the Bagail toll plaza in Bhanga at around 11:00 am on Friday. She then crossed the road there and came to the western side. Speaking to Prothom Alo, she said the bus dropped her there instead of any place near the pedestrian bridges. And so she had to clamber over the railing to cross the road.

Visiting the pedestrian bridge in the Tujarpur area, it was seen that the barbed wire of the fence dividing the road was cut so people could slip through and cross the road directly. None of the pedestrians were using the bridge. They were crossing the road directly instead of using the pedestrian bridge. When asked, a pedestrian told the correspondent that it was hard to cross through the pedestrian bridge with bags.

The buses were seen picking up passengers directly from the expressway instead of the bus stoppages made for this purpose near the Maligram Flyover. The scenario was the same at the bus stoppages in the Surjanagar, Bandarkhola and Pachchor areas.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, executive engineer of the roads and bridges department in Munshiganj, Nahin Reza, said, “Although there should not be any stoppage on the expressway, we had to keep it considering the reality of our country.”

Superintendent of Madaripur highway police, Mahbubul Alam said, “The railing of the expressway is not that high. People easily jump over it to cross the road taking risk resulting in frequent road mishaps on the expressway. At least two to three casualties are reported every month.”

Members of the Hasara highway police station were seen checking the speed of vehicles plying on the road. While they were fining two cars for speeding, another speeding car suddenly arrived. The policemen signalled the car to stop, but the car didn’t stop and went away.

A police on duty said there was no other team on the expressway to stop that car. The drivers are breaking the rules in this way every day on the expressway.

According to the highway police and the roads department, the speed limit on the expressway is 80 kph. However, no one cares about the speed limits. The vehicles are often driven at a speed of 100 to 120 kph. The drivers often race to overtake other vehicles on the expressway.

Al Amin, a resident of the Khoiyargaon area, said that although the road is new, the same old vehicles are plying on it. The drivers are careless about the rules. They drive recklessly.

Md Sobhan Mollah, a checker of Sonali Paribahan that moves on the expressway, admitted to violating laws. He said 100-150 vehicles move on the expressway and road crash often takes place only because these vehicles do not follow rules.

According to Madaripur highway police sources, 68 people were killed in 49 road accidents in Zazira-Bhanga section of the highway in last one year. Of them, 37 people died in four major accidents. Eight people including the driver were killed after an ambulance caught fire when its tyre burst in front of the Maligram flyover of the expressway on June 24. Ninteen people were killed after it tumbled off the expressway in Shibchar’s Kutubpur on 19 March as it driver lost control over steering. Eight people died after a Dhaka-bound ambulance collided with a truck in Nawdoba aea of Shariatpur area in the early hours of 18 January. A four people including a couple and their child were killed after a private car hit a standing truck from behind in Salildia area of Bhanga on 29 December. Five pedestrians were killed in a road crash near the Bogail toll plaza in Bhanga in January.

Five people were killed after a bus of Padma Paribahan hit a standing truck in Shologhar area on 20 April. Two people including an on-duty policeman were killed as a microbus hit them in Padma Bridge police station area on 25 June.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Hasara Highway police station officer-in-charge SM Rashedul Islam said many vehicles do not follow laws while on the highway, causing road accidents. Persons violating laws face fines, yet they drive recklessly.

Transport owners, however, blame passengers for high speed. Mahmud Alam is one of the owners of Gangchil Paribahan that operates on the expressway. He told Prothom Alo each vehicle drives over 120km an hour on this road. If vehicle moves slowly, passengers don’t want to travel in it and rebuke the driver and his assistants.

He also blamed passengers for stopping vehicles at designated locations. Mahmud Alam said passengers don’t want come to designated locations and they want to board on vehicles from wherever they are. Passengers don’t want to get off the vehicle on designated locations either and they get off the bus here and there, he added.

There is no possibility of head-on-collision of vehicles as the four lanes of the expressways go in different direction. Officials of the roads and highways department think road crashes take place on the expressway because of reckless driving, racing to overtake, and engine flaws. For this, leaflets are being distributed and PA announcement is being made on public awareness, said Abul Kashem Mohammad Nahin Reza, executive engineer of the roads and highways department in Munshiganj. He told Prothom Alo there are sign on speed limit in a little distance all over the road. More importance has been given on accident prone areas and 21 overbridges have been constructed in strategic points.

Nahin Reza said fibre optical cable has been installed on the road. Work on installing big CCTV cameras is starting. Vehicle speed will be monitored through these and that will be recorded along with the vehicle number. As a result, persons violating law will be detected easily and brought to book, he added.

This report appeared in the print and the online editions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu and Hasanul Banna