Three-wheelers plying highways
The High Court ban on three-wheelers and slow-moving vehicles on highways is being flouted with impunity. A photo of one such vehicle – with trucks and motorbikes seen following it – overloaded with bamboo plying the Dhaka-Sylhet highway published in this daily yesterday is an example of this.
What is the use of a government order if its enforcement is almost non-existent? Unfortunately, the sight of three-wheelers travelling on highways is so commonplace that the public have become desensitised to it.
Road safety has emerged as an inescapable priority for Bangladesh today. A recent government-supervised survey revealed that on average 64 people die every day and 23,166 die every year due to injuries from traffic accidents. Last month alone, at least 362 people were killed and 865 others injured in 330 road accidents, according to a press release of the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways. The Committee cited violation of traffic rules and regulations and increased number of three-wheelers on roads as some of the primary causes of road accidents.
These numbers are startling to say the least. Given that road accidents are one of the biggest reasons of unnatural deaths in Bangladesh, it is incomprehensible as to why the issue is not yet being taken seriously by the authorities. A major concern regarding road safety is the stranglehold that undisciplined drivers have over the safety of passengers and pedestrians and it can only be loosened with the strict enforcement of the law.
Comments