THE government has spent a total of Tk 181.29 million on road safety campaigns in six financial years. But, whilst the government has not so far conducted an assessment on how effective the campaigns have been in ensuring road safety, experts say that there has been no improvement in the road safety regime as the number of people coming to have died in traffic accidents. Official data also corroborate what experts and road safety campaigners say. The Road Safety Department, set up under the Road Transport Authority in 2016, spent Tk 37.49 million on campaigns, mostly targeting drivers, in the 2024 financial year, Tk聽33.40 million in 2023, Tk 30.63 million in 2022, Tk 30.43 million in 2021, Tk聽27.26 million in 2020 and Tk聽22.02 million in 2019. But, the number of people who died in traffic accidents was 5,480 in 2024 and 5,024 in 2023, keeping to statistics available with the Road Transport Authority, which started keeping accounts in 2023. Police statistics say that 4,636 people died in traffic accidents in 2022, 5,088 in 2021, 3,918 in 2020 and 2,635 in 2019. Private estimates, however, suggest that the figures are much higher.
Experts and road safety campaigners believe that whilst such a huge amount of money spent on road safety campaigns has failed to come up with any effective results, they further believe that the government has not spent the money where the spending is needed. The authorities say that they have spent the money mostly on campaigns, training and publications focused on all road users. The department has also provided drivers with short-term orientation, held programmes in educational institutions, at terminals and in road crossings in addition to running advertisements in daily newspapers. But experts say that the government should have spent the money on surveillance of driving competence tests and the process of fitness checking of vehicles. They say that the money should have, rather, been spent on finding the problems, which they believe are issues of driving competence tests and vehicle fitness checking amidst wide allegations that instructors issue licences without checking anything, which is also the case with the vehicle fitness checking process. Only campaigns without identifying prime reasons for fatal traffic accidents and taking remedial measures based on the findings will hardly ensure road safety. The government is reported to be working on a comprehensive law to discipline the road regime in the wake of the Road Transport Act 2018 that still runs into enforcement problems.
Huge spending on campaigns and novel legislation cannot ensure road safety unless the government gets at the prime reasons that have rendered the road regime risky.
