Road transport act must be implemented in full

The Road Transport Act passed by the Jatiya Sangsad (national parliament) in 2019, to ensure safety, prevention of accidents and discipline on the roads, was praised by all quarters. The transport sector in the country had long been run on the basis of the Bengal Motor Vehicles Act of 1939 and the Motor Vehicle Ordinance of 1983.

While the move for an act began in 2010, it was the students’ movement that finalised the matter. When two college students were killed by a reckless bus on 29 July 2019 on the airport road, students all over the country rose up in a movement demanding safe roads. After that the parliament passed the act, which included a five-year prison sentence for causing death by rash driving.

However, due to opposition from the transport owners’ association and workers’ organisations, the law has still not come into effect over the past two years. In a rare instance, the transport owners and workers joined hands to observe a strike, demanding the law be abolished. The interests of the owners and workers are never the same. The government then held up implementation of the law and formed a review committee headed by the home minister Asaduzzaman Khan.

According to a report of Prothom Alo on Thursday, the committee recommended amendments in certain sections of the law to lessen the severity of the punishment of transport owners and workers responsible for accidents. The crimes mentioned in sections 84, 98 and 105 of the act are non-bailable crimes. The review committee has recommended that the crimes in sections 84 and 98 be made bailable. Also, they have recommended scope for the crime in section 98 to be settled through compromise.

Section 105 imposes a maximum five-year prison sentence or Tk 500,000 fine or both for death caused by road accidents. The recommended amendment calls for the fine to be reduced to Tk 300,000.

Section 98 imposes a three-year prison sentence or Tk 300,000 fine or both against drivers, conductors or helpers in the case of an accident due to exceeding the speed limit, risky overtaking or overloading. The new proposal said that the word ‘overloading’ should be dropped and that the ‘speed limit’ should be replaced by ‘speeding’. If ‘overloading’ is dropped, it will be difficult to nab the drivers. ‘Speeding’ is also a vague term.

According to records, only 10 per cent of the accidents are brought to justice, while 90 per cent of the accused are freed of charges. If the law is relaxed, it would not be surprising if this impunity will then be 100 per cent. Despite existing ‘strict laws’, deaths in road accidents are a regular phenomenon. If the laws are further relaxed, the situation will go out of control. Deaths on the road will undoubtedly increase. The law that was passed in the parliament after 10 years, hardly needs any further amendment.

If the law that has won praise from all quarters is now amended, the transport owners and drivers will become even more reckless. Travelling by road will be risky for passengers. Rather than giving in to the demands of vested interest groups, the Road Transport Act must be implemented as it is, unchanged.