1

Chaos in the street caused by both

reckless driving and jaywalking often leads
to fatal accidents, how to stop it?

It has become a routine matter and once you open the newspaper, you are greeted with
dreadful news of fatal road accidents and people losing their nearest and dearest ones.

The current statistics indicate that deaths in road accidents in our country have reached one
of the highest in the world. A recent study conducted by Accident Research Centre of
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology revealed that road and river
transport accidents in Bangladesh claim one person every 45 minutes and Bangladesh is
ranked number one among the most accident prone countries.
It has been observed that the main offenders in the occurrences of these unpardonable
offences are bus and truck drivers who are engaged in reckless driving, driving with fake
licences, not adhering to speed limitations, safety rules and regulations. The situation has
gone beyond control and aggravating day by day since in most of the cases it has been
found the culprits are going unpunished and if caught are freed due to their strong political
connections. The lack of any strong disciplinary actions and political commitment of the
decision makers has further provoked the situation. The general mass is frustrated by the
dwindling attitude of all political regimes (past and present) to arrest the criminals and
providing any strong upfront disciplinary measures. The citizens are fed up with the
formation of so called Tadanta Committees (enquiry committees) ending with no positive
outcomes and hardly their recommendations are implemented. The general public wants
actions and no further eye wash of committees. We urge the government for immediate
implementation of drastic measures to bring an end to these unacceptable killings.

The main reasons behind Road Accidents:-

The road accidents in Bangladesh may principally be attributed to the following factors:
i)

Reckless driving;

ii)
iii)
iv)
v)
vi)
vii)
viii)
ix)
x)
xi)
xii)
xiii)
xiv)
xv)
xvi)

untrained drivers;
issuance of fake driving licenses;
vehicles driven by helpers and conductors;
vehicles driven in a drunken state;
vehicles driven while busy taking over mobile phone;
non-stop running of vehicles by drivers (drivers are paid on the number of trips
they make);
lack of training;
violation of traffic rules and regulations;
no speed control;
substandard and poorly maintained roads;
deplorable road conditions;
poorly maintained vehicles;
lack of monitoring and supervision;
involvement of law enforcers in inappropriate practices such as corruption and
taking bribes; and
Absence of road safety features.

The faulty road designs, deplorable condition of the roads (both national and regional
highways) and lack of maintenance from the concerned entities are also contributing to
road accidents in Bangladesh. Several accident black spots have been identified in the
major national highways of the country and regrettably the remedial measures to rectify the
defects in these locations appear to be moving at snails pace. In all the major bends, the
radius of curvatures and sight distance appear to be significantly inadequate leading to
colossal road disasters. It is noticeable that the accidents appeared to be occurring at the
bends and where no medians have been constructed.

Accident Statistics:In total, there were 595 reported major fatal accidents over the period 2009-2014 which claims
3075 lives and injured at least 8427 people .On average at least 126 major fatal accidents are
occurred in each year resulting 4.85 fatalities and 14.7 casualties per accident. Though major
fatal accidents are only 4 percent of total accident, they allege 19.0 percent of total fatalities and
57.0 percent of total injuries each year. [1]
1 Hoque, MM. Ahsan, HM, "Rural road accidents and safety countermeasures: The case of
Bangladesh", May 2014.

Counter measures and preventions:The benefits of safety improvement measures fell short of expectations owing to the lack of
enforcement.
In this respect, the introduction of a highway surveillance team involving local community
leaders could be a possibility, in particular to control the conflicting uses of roadway marginal
areas for purposes such as, drying of agricultural products, keeping domestic animals near the
highway for grazing, playing games by children on roads, temporary markets and hawking,
contra-flow on divided highway, operation of unlicensed non-standard vehicles etc.
Controlling speed as well as controlling errant behavior of drivers appears to be the most
effective ways to reduce accidents in Bangladesh and this can be ensured by addressing
police enforcement system strictly. A change in driving behavior ,regarding speed limit as
well drunk driving, overtaking and overloading ,brought by legislation have led to large
reduction in accidents

Road Users specially heavy vehicles drivers can be properly trained by authorized
centers.

Emergency medical care: Special provision on improving access to adequate prehospital and hospital trauma care for road crash victims must be set up on an emergency
basis. There must have traffic aid posts at suitable distances on the highways to assist
injured in case of accidents and quick transport of injured

Conclusion:
The global forecast has indicated that over the next 10
years developing countries like Bangladesh will experience
an alarming increase in road accidents and casualties (but
we are already facing the problem). Addressing the safety
problems thus emerges a serious challenge in the absence
of requisite transport safety professionals and resources. It
discusses the priority issues and options for improving
safety. Pedestrian-vehicle conflicts are clearly the greatest
problem with significant involvement of trucks and buses.
Children are highly vulnerable in the traffic situation

compared with many other countries of the world. There is

urgent need and scope for improving the road safety
situation by implementing an effective and coordinated
safety policy and actions which require significant
improvements in relevant sectors viz. better enforcement,
better roads (including the treatment of accident
blackspots) and improved public education programmes
with the introduction of newly-developed measures and
approaches. Intensified efforts are needed to bring about
changes in the attitudes of drivers and other users towards
safe operations. Importantly, initiatives to improve the
conditions would require renewed governmental
commitment and considerable resources, particularly
trained local personnel, safety specialists and researchers to
build up indigenous capacity and attain sustainability of
effective road safety programmes. There has been a number
of recent governmental initiatives for organizing and
implementing road safety programmes through a strategic
action plan including the establishment of the Accident
Research Centre. These initiatives in tackling the safety
problem are considered to be very significant in terms of
governmental commitments and are important to regional
and sub-regional collaboration and support in sharing of
information, developments and good practices towards
consolidating programmes for safety improvements. The
ARC at Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Technology could well be supported by WHO as their
collaborating centre on road traffic accident prevention in
developing and promoting effective road safety measures
based on locally-based research on road traffic accidents.

Shabnam Talukder Barsha

School of Law
BRAC University