A young couple, on their way to office by motorbike on 18 January morning, were crushed and killed under the wheels of a reckless bus. They had just reached the Padma Oil gate near the airport in the capital city at around 7:30 in the morning, when an Ajmeri Glory Paribahan bus hit them from behind. They may have survived, but the bus drove straight over them. The young couple, Akash Iqbal and wife Maya Hazarika, were killed. Who will answer for this death?
All deaths are painful, but the road accident that day not only snatched away two lives, but left their child an orphan. The picture of the infant with its parents is heart-wrenching. On the same day another couple was killed by a bus in Chuadanga.
Prothom Alo investigations reveal that 35 per cent of the road accidents involved motorcycles. Many motorbike riders are killed on the road, even after they follow all the rules. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police have arrested the bus driver Tasikul Islam in the airport road incident. The bus conductor and helper are absconding.
According to investigations, the driver Tasikul Islam didn't have a licence to drive buses of heavy vehicles. The driver of the bus that killed university student Abrar Ahmed Chowdhury at Nodda in Basundhara of the capital city in March 2019, didn't have a heavy vehicle driver's licence either. There is a huge difference between driving heavy vehicles and light vehicles. We often see police halting vehicles on Dhaka's streets and checking the papers. Fines are imposed, cases are filed, but are these all then just eyewash?
How many lives must we lose on the roads? The drivers and the helpers are undoubtedly responsible for these accidents. But the regulatory body BRTA, the traffic police and the owners of the vehicles are liable too. By allowing a driver with a light vehicle to drive a heavy vehicle or bus, the owner of the vehicle is putting the people at the risk of accidents and death. And the regulatory body simply turns a blind eye. That is why the disorder on the roads has increased.
There was less traffic on the roads last year due to the outbreak of coronavirus. Even so, 5000 people died on the streets. According to Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association, in a span of four years (2016-2019), a total of 29,315 people were killed in road accidents. According to the records, there are over 3.8 million registered vehicles in the country at present, but only 1 million licenced drivers. That means 47 per cent of the vehicles are being driven by drivers with fake or no licences.
Students had launched a movement for safe roads and in response the government amended the transport laws and increased the severity of the sentence. Yet deaths on the roads continue unabated. Simply making a law is not enough. Its implementation must be ensured. The vehicle owners and rivers must be compelled to follow the law.