Home ›› 04 Jan 2023 ›› Editorial
As unfortunate as it is, Bangladesh is no stranger to road accidents, with news on such occurrences being embarrassingly frequent. Hardly a day passes without the painful news of deaths in road accidents. And it seems that we are helpless to do anything to redress the horrendous situation. Either that or the authorities are least concerned about the problem.
However, the number of road accidents, and subsequent injuries and deaths, has reached astounding heights, with only mismanagement to blame. The number of road accidents and deaths is increasing due to irregularities, corruption, and lack of accountability of the agencies responsible for ensuring road safety. We accept that accidents will happen if we have vehicles on the road, but most accidents that occur so frequently on our roads and highways are quite avoidable.
According to the latest data by Jatri Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, road crash fatalities hit 9,951, highest in 8 years. A total of 10,858 people were killed and 12,875 others injured in the country’s 7,617 road, railway, and waterway accidents in 2022. Of them, 6,749 road accidents left 9,951 people dead and 12,356 others injured the highest figures in the last eight years. Deaths in road crashes saw a rise of 27.43 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021.
In the just-concluded year, 550 people were killed and 201 others injured in 606 railway accidents, while 262 accidents on waterways claimed the lives of 357 people and left 318 others injured and 743 more missing. The report reveals that 52.02 per cent of the total accidents last year were on regional highways, 27.70 per cent on national highways, and 11.88 per cent on feeder roads.
Besides, 5.67 per cent of the total accidents in the country occurred in Dhaka, 1.71 per cent in Chattogram city, and 0.99 per cent in rail crossings.
It may sound cynical, but given the state of the vehicles that we see on the roads, the degree of common sense and awareness of traffic rules of the drivers, their level of proficiency, and the wanton corruption that allows untrained drivers and unfit vehicles to ply the roads—it is perhaps surprising that even more accidents do not occur.
The situation has gotten so bad that when one venture onto the highways, it is likely he/she would be petrified the entire course of the journey, continuously praying to providence for a safe termination of their travels.
Reportedly, the annual road crash deaths per capita in Bangladesh are twice the average rate for high-income countries and five times that of the best-performing countries in the world. Reckless driving, risky overtaking, dilapidated roads, unfit vehicles, unskilled drivers, using mobile phones or headphones while driving, and lack of awareness among road users were cited as the main reasons behind road crashes.
The fact that such a staggering number of lives are lost due to sheer negligence on the authorities’ part is already a hard pill to swallow, let alone the fact that a large portion of the casualties consists of the youth of the country—the leaders of our future being denied the right to a future at all.
How much time will pass till the authorities finally take matters seriously and solve the root of this very real problem? How many more lives must be lost in the process?
We fully endorse the fact that the high death rate on Bangladesh’s roads is due to a chronic lack of investment in systemic, targeted, and sustained road safety programmes. What are worsening the crisis are the poor control measures in issuing road permits and driver’s licenses and the non-enforcement of road traffic laws. It is time for the government to act, not simply look away as more innocent lives continue to be lost on our dangerous roads.
