At least 19 people have died and 30 others have been injured after a Dhaka-bound passenger bus of Emad Paribahan plunged into a ditch at Kutubpur in Shibchar upazila of Madaripur district on Sunday morning. Condition of many injured passengers is stated to be critical.
The bus fell into a ditch after a drowsy driver lost control over the steering. The bus which was operating between Dhaka and Khulna did not have any fitness clearance for three months. Besides, the passenger vehicle had also met an accident last year. During that time Bangladesh Road Transport Authority had suspended the bus’s registration.
We are worryingly notifying that drowsy and drunken driving is considerably increasing accident risk, leading to alarming cases of injuries and deaths every day. Besides, unhealthy competition among drivers and reckless driving, renting out buses on contractual basis, employing drivers without any license and tendency of overloading and overtaking among drivers violating traffic rules are responsible for the horrific road crash. Apart from this, chronic lack of investment in systemic, targeted, and sustained road safety programmes are also causing road crash.
We do not want to see
repetition of such deadly
and tragic road crashes
But, the drivers, transport workers and travellers are still not aware of road safety even after the countrywide massive protests by people especially students in the last few years.
We do not want to see repetition of such deadly and tragic road crashes that continue taking people’s lives and ruining many families with moments. Such death is causing an irreparable loss to family of the victims.
The government took several measures to enhance vigilance on the roads and highways by utilising modern information technology to prevent road accidents. But still the country is witnessing fatal road mishaps and many people are dying every day due to lack of monitoring by the authorities concerned.
Therefore, all the stakeholders must make concerted efforts towards improvement of road safety through engineering measures.
