THE road transport system continues to be plagued with an entrenched culture of lawlessness, weak regulation and consequent accidents. The latest Road Safety Foundation report says that 696 died and 1,867 became injured in 689 traffic accidents in June alone. This comes down to an average of 23 death a day. This also marks a 22.55 per cent increase in fatalities from the previous month. Motorcyclists and pillion riders have accounted for about a third of the deceased, followed by three-wheeler passengers, pedestrians and transport workers. The carnage is not confined to roads alone. Forty-four people died in 53 train accidents and 21 more died in 18 waterway accidents. The sheer range of vehicles involved, from buses and trucks to modified utility vehicles, highlights the chaotic state of the transport sector. The estimated economic loss, more than Tk 2,463 crore in June alone, adds to the human toll. The figures, compiled from media reports, paint a bleak picture of public safety and highlight the staggering cost of official inaction.
What lies beneath this alarming increase in road fatalities is a combination of systemic neglect, enforcement failures and an unchecked culture of impunity on the road. Nearly 45 per cent of the incidents were attributed to drivers losing control of the vehicles, a telling indicator of poor training, lack of screening and, often, an absence of valid licences of drivers. The involvement of motorcycles in more than a fifth of all accidents reflects a failure to regulate their exponential growth while the continued use of locally assembled, unsafe vehicles on national highways suggests a regulatory void. Moreover, more than 40 per cent of accidents occurred on national highways, with morning hours coming to be especially fatal, reinforcing concern about speed and lax monitoring. Successive governments have responded to such issues with short-term traffic drives, rather than addressing the foundational problems: the absence of vehicle fitness, a widespread operation of illegal or unfit transports, poor road engineering and the limited institutional capacity of the Road Transport Authority. That the Road Transport Act 2018, passed amid nationwide protests, remains largely unenforced, including its provisions on driver licensing, vehicle fitness and victim compensation, is a reflection of political unwillingness to disrupt vested interests in the transport sector.
Unless road safety is treated as a policy priority, with strict enforcement of the laws, reforms in licensing and removal of illegal transports, this trend will persist. The authorities should break its inertia and show that it values lives over convenience or pressure from transport lobbies.
