Reckless night driving goes unabated in Dhaka

Atiqur Rahman, a resident of Dhaka’s Rampura area, got a job in a private organisation after completing his study. He used to live in a mess with his friends.

As they planned to have biryani in old Dhaka, Atiq left for old Dhaka on a motorcycle with his friend named Anon at midnight. But they narrowly escaped an accident by avoiding the collision with a speeding truck near InterContinental Hotel.

Not only Atiq, a number of people also face various problems and become victims of road accidents due to lack of traffic police and digital signalling system at night time.

Once traffic lights and timers in the capital were operational, but now police manage traffic manually. However, traffic police are not seen at all points of the roads after 10 pm.

That’s why drivers often violate traffic rules and regulations at night and accidents happen for reckless driving and making quick U-turns by them. Experts say that traffic police should be more responsible at night along with public awareness to prevent such accidents.

According to a report of Road Safety Foundation, an organisation working on road accidents, the number of road accidents in the capital increased by 97.70 per cent in 2022 compared to the previous year. Majority of the victims was pedestrians who were hit by vehicles while most of the accidents occurred at night and early morning. The report also said that human resource loss, caused by road accidents in the country last year, was estimated to be Tk 18,046 crore.

Prof Dr M Shamsul Haque, former director of Accident Research Institute at BUET, told The Business Post that it is difficult to fix such problem only through education and awareness. “Human beings are opportunists by birth, if one takes a chance, it takes 10 others. So, police surveillance is needed.”