Road accidents: The points that we miss

Last year has been a terrible one for people belonging to different echelons of society for a number of reasons. Fresh surge of the coronavirus further compounded by escalating prices of essentials, has complicated the lives of mass people. Another major concern in the previous year was the alarming rate of road accidents. And it is very disconcerting to observe that all of a sudden, the rate of road accidents has increased and is taking a perilous turn. In the last few days, road accidents have increased alarmingly.

According to latest information by Road Safety Foundation (RSF), an organization that works for safer roads, there had been a total of 5,371 reported road accidents across the country in 2021, which killed around 6,284 people, including 927 women and 734 children whereas 7,468 people suffered injuries of varying degrees owing to these road accidents. The organization went on to claim in their findings that the number of road accidents increased by 13.4 per cent and fatalities by 15.70 per cent in 2021.

There are many reasons behind the rising number of road accidents. All of us, more or less, know about these. But, we often fail to take notice of other factors or outcomes associated with road accidents.

Just think about the financial consequences of a road accident. Say for example – Abdur Rahim has been killed in a road accident and he happened to be the only bread-earner for his family. What will happen to the family members? What are the implications of a road accident for this family? The reality is very grim and gloomy. Whenever there is a major road accident, a number of people get killed. Consequently, the families of those killed in road accidents go through not only mental trauma, but also insurmountable financial burden. A road accident means huge financial crisis and an uncertain future for the family members. As most of the times the families of the victims of road accidents are not compensated owing to a lack of policy framework, they face financial crisis.

Another important observation is that drivers themselves are getting agitated and psychologically disturbed because of a lack of proper work management system. They are being forced to work or drive for long hours without being offered break in between trips, paid a measly amount of money and even some are asked to hire bus on contractual basis – all these contribute to rising psychological tension among the transport workers. As a result, whenever they are on the roads, they feel frustrated and a sense of pent-up frustration knocks the wind out of their sails to drive vehicles following road safety guidelines. Such mindset and frustration play a significant role behind road accidents.

Moreover, there is no serious scrutiny process to select the drivers. Anyone is being allowed to drive vehicles turning a blind eye to their mental stability. There are many drivers plying vehicles on the roads who are mentally unfit to do this job. As a result, these drivers act very recklessly and are responsible for majority of accidents. There is no process of scrutinizing the mental state of the drivers before granting license to them in our country, which is not an acceptable practice. Mental fitness is indeed necessary for drivers as it is important to control your composure when you get your hands on the steering wheels. Many of the drivers feel an adrenaline rush once they hold the steering wheels because of inappropriate age and mental instability, so they turn out to be wayward on the roads, putting the lives of the commuters in jeopardy.

It is also true that many of both the commuters and the transport workers are really not aware of the traffic rules or they are very unwilling to follow these. When someone opts for crossing the road without using the zebra crossing, it increases the risk of an accident manifolds. In the meantime, most of the drivers really don’t bother to stop when they see someone crossing the road using zebra crossing. Such apathy to the traffic rules sometimes results in terrible accidents, claiming innocent lives.

Apart from these, Road Safety Foundation (RSF) has also pointed out a number of causes for road accidents, most of which are related to mismanagement and reckless driving. Semi-skilled drivers and lack of their physical and mental fitness, reckless driving, poor traffic management, extortion in the transport sector, unfit vehicles, long or indefinite working hours, lack of efficiency of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and inadequate knowledge and lack of awareness of traffic rules are the major reasons that contribute to road accidents.

In the meantime, there is no denying that there has been serious allegation regarding the government’s failure to bring discipline to the transport sector. The whole transport sector is much disorganized and there is a nexus active in this sector that is hamstringing the overall growth of this sector. At the end of the day, it is the commuters and transport workers who are being deprived of a safe transport system. Instead of considering the deaths caused by road accidents from a holistic point of view, we need to take into consideration the fact that every death is significant and causes massive changes in the lives of the people the deceased leaves behind. To be frank, the number of death and injuries caused by road accidents is not letting up and there is no respite in sight. Policymakers and other stakeholders need to give it a serious thought and come up with solutions to stop the deaths caused by road accidents.

The writer is a communications professional. He can be contacted at malammohabbat@gmail.com