Home ›› 04 Mar 2022 ›› Opinion
Every year several thousand people die in road accidents in the country. According to the Road Safety Foundation, a total of 5,381 road accidents occurred across the country in 2021. At least 6,264 people were killed and 6 thousand 46 people were injured in these accidents. Motor cycle accidents have become a serious cause for concern. There were, 2,006 motorcycle accidents in 2021 resulting in the deaths of 2,214 people, which is 35.23 per cent of the total deaths in road accidents. Besides, 1,523 pedestrians were killed in road accidents during the year, which accounts for 24.23 per cent of the total fatalities.
According to the World Health Organization, about 1.3 million people worldwide die in road accidents each year. Traffic accidents eat up two to three per cent of the GDP, according to the World Health Organisation. Low-income countries account for one per cent of vehicles globally but they are responsible for 16 per cent of total traffic casualties whereas high-income countries account for nine per cent of all casualties despite having 46 per cent of vehicles globally. Death processions on the road have become a daily occurrence in Bangladesh as well. Despite widespread student protests in 2020 demanding safer roads, the situation has not changed for the better.
What is the real value of the lives lost in road accidents? What is the financial cost of the suffering of those who have been paralyzed for life? Many people will not want to do this calculation in terms of money. Life is invaluable, it is not possible to find out the value of life, but there are some people whose untimely death causes irreparable damage to the country. It is not possible to fill the void created by the untimely death of a doctor, a teacher, an engineer, a businessperson who contributed to the development of the country and became bright stars in various fields. The death of a talented and immensely promising student, who will lead the country in the future, hinders the progress of the country. The death of a worker also hurts the country’s economy. Almost every day, people from all strata of the country engaged in the productive sectors are dying in road accidents in some parts of the country. The death toll on the streets has risen to such an abnormal rate that it has become a cause for serious concern.
Road accidents are one of the alarming issues in developing countries like Bangladesh. The accidents affect both human and economic status. A cost estimation model has been designed by the Human Capital method. Historical accident data was collected from the Accident Research Institute (ARI), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Every year about 3,500 people die and 2,650 get injured in road accidents. The estimated total cost of accidents in the year 2020 was about 4,118 million USD (BDT 35,001 crore) which constitutes 1.3 per cent of the total Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of Bangladesh.
A government study shows that the average economic loss as a result of the death of a working person in a road accident is BDT 24,72,108. In most accident analyzed; the damage is calculated by surveying the victims or calculating their average salary. However, the average income for motor vehicle users has been calculated based on the Travel Time Cost (TTC) survey of the Bangladesh Road Research Laboratory (BRRL). According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2015-16), the average income of pedestrians alone is estimated at BDT 9,550 per capita. Researchers say that they have calculated the average age of accident victims from their samples to get an idea of what their average lifetime income will be. The amount of financial loss is calculated based on the number of years lost due to the accident.
On the other hand, in the case of the injured, the financial loss for those few days has been calculated by multiplying the person’s daily income by the length of time a person has to stay away from work after the accident. In developing countries, severe injuries take up to 30 days to heal and minor injuries take up to two days, the report said. The costs of treating road accident victims include - first aid and rescue operations, hospital meals, beds, operations, X-rays, medicines, doctor’s fees and subsequent rehabilitation costs. However, in Bangladesh, the injured in road accidents are rarely given ambulance service or first aid - in most cases, they are taken to a medical center or home on their initiative. The bodies of those who were killed on the spot were transported by the police. On the other hand, it is considered quite difficult to find out the cost of hospitalization. This is because, in the case of critically injured, 10 days is calculated in the case of hospitalized patients and two days in the case of non-hospitalized patients.
According to relevant data 38 per cent of road accidents take place due to careless driving as most drivers are neither trained properly nor given proper rest. According to the ARI of BUET the country suffers an economic loss of about Tk. 38,000 crore each year because of road accidents. As per their research findings, over-speeding is responsible for 53 per cent of casualties in road crashes while careless driving for 38 per cent of fatalities and the rest for other reasons.
The incidents of road crashes and casualties can be reduced significantly by installing Radar Speed-enforcement Cameras in every two kilometers of national highways and other important roads, enhancing the skills of drivers and producing capable drivers by setting up driving schools across the country and strictly enforcing traffic rules and regulations.
Vehicles– non-motorized ones, human haulers, motorbikes and three-wheelers – must be restricted on national highways, alongside stopping illegal carrying of passengers on the rooftops of buses and in trucks, putting up correct road sings beside highways and restoring discipline in the transport sector are also crucial to check road accidents.
The government has set the safe speed limit on highways at 80km per hour as per geometric design standards. But as our highways are not free from local frictions like roadside markets, shops and informal vehicles it should not be more than 60km/h. But, most drivers of both heavy and light vehicles ply their vehicles with a speed in the range of 100-120km per hour on the highway as currently there is lack of field mechanism to detect and punish the speed limit violators. 38 per cent of road accidents take place due to careless driving as most drivers are neither trained properly nor given proper rest in addition to their devil may care attitude towards traffic rules.
As per the global practice, no one should drive more than four hours without a break. Every driver should take a one-hour rest after driving for four hours. But drivers here do two-shift duties a day and drive three to four days consecutively taking inadequate rest. That is why they lose concentration while driving, causing fatal accidents.
Highway police are unable to play an important role in enforcing the law and checking road accidents for lack of manpower, proper logistics and technological support. Highway police are often used for security reasons as they mostly check vehicles for recovering drugs or maintaining law and order.
Research of the ARI showed the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth will grow by at least 1 per cent additionally if the authorities can halve the road accident casualties.
The writer is a researcher.
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