WHO statistics speak for themselves. Road accidents, the 9th leading cause for disability-adjusted life years lost in 1998, seem set to notch up the third position there in 2020. What's clearly disquieting is that traffic injuries constitute the number one cause of death among young people aged 16 to 24 years.

Coming to Bangladesh, she has one of the highest fatality rates, higher than 73 deaths per 10 thousand. This accounts for a whopping loss of Tk 15 billion every year. Such deaths often ruin whole families and the maimed and crippled ones barely exist (not live) on the margins of society and economy. Even the statistics may not reflect the true magnitude of this epidemic of the new century almost rivaling the HIV affliction. This apprehension comes from lack of documentation and underreporting of accidents.

We are adept in compiling and disseminating statistics, but apparently not in acting on them. Perhaps, we like to rest content with sharing the urgency that the data analysis brings to the fore thinking that our commitment has been demonstrated after all. This attitude must go. There must be a hands-on approach, as distinguished from an academic one, on the part of national governments to enhance road safety by all possible means.

We have to make the right start in preventing road accidents. Do we realise that 53 per cent of road accident victims are pedestrian and that this could go up to 70 per cent in the near future? It is a daily sight for anyone in the street that pedestrians and vehicles pass each other by whiskers. So, all street users have to be sensitised about adhering to road safety rules. The recommendations of action research relating to inclusion of traffic safety precautions in school curriculum, capacity building in NGOs and communities, and the launching of an awareness campaign on a sustainable basis, merit attention and implementation.