Transport strike for 'killer' driver
Road transport workers have started enforcing an indefinite strike in 10 southern districts this morning, five days after a bus driver was sentenced to life imprisonment for his reckless driving killing five people in 2011.
The strike comes at a time when a government-supervised survey says at least 64 people die from injuries suffered in traffic accidents every day. The survey, titled Bangladesh Health Injury Survey-2016, was revealed earlier this month.
The transport leaders called the strike, terming the February 22 verdict inappropriate. They are also demanding a “proper trial” of Jamir Hossain, the convicted bus driver.
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, actor Ilias Kanchan, who has been campaigning for road safety for years, expressed his anger.
“It has become a practice over the years that road transport workers enforce strike to pressurise the government and keep people hostage for materialising their illogical demands.
“Because of this, we saw in the past that authorities concerned in many cases did not take action against culprit road transport workers. But such practice should end and the government should not hesitate to enforce laws strictly,” said Kanchan, who himself lost his wife in a road accident in 1993.
Even yesterday, a medical student who was travelling with her mother was killed after a reckless bus hit their CNG-run auto-rickshaw from behind in the capital's Bangshal.
The strike, which begins in 10 districts in Khulna division at 6:00am, has been called in protest of a Manikganj court verdict that sentenced the bus driver to life in prison.
After the verdict was pronounced, Jamir, the convict, claimed innocence and said he “did not kill anybody” and he “just manoeuvred his vehicle to the left”.
“The strike will continue until we get assurance from the government that we will get justice,” said Abdur Rahim Box Dudu, senior vice president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers' Federation.
“All the transport workers are aggrieved and we have no other option other than going for the strike,” he said, adding that “no one is supposed to get more than a five-year-imprisonment for road accident”.
The decision of enforcing the strike was taken in a meeting at the federation's regional office in Jessore yesterday, reports our correspondent there.
On February 22, Manikganj Additional District and Sessions Court pronounced the verdict in presence of Jamir, 50, holding him guilty for "reckless driving and negligence" that led to the deaths of the five, including noted filmmaker Tareque Masud and media personality Ashfaque Munier Mishuk.
The accident happened on the Dhaka-Aricha highway at Joka under Ghior upazila of Manikganj on August 13, 2011. Tareque Masud, Ashfaque Munier Mishuk popularly known as Mishuk Munier, and their film production crew -- Wasim, Jamal and microbus driver Mostafizur Rahman -- were on their way in a microbus to meet the deputy commissioner in the district.
Road accidents with heavy casualties are common in Bangladesh but the drivers responsible in most of the cases escape trial. Though the drivers are punished in a few cases, awarding life imprisonment is rare, said experts working on road accident-related issues.
Reckless driving, run-down and unfit vehicles, modifying body structure of vehicles, establishing roadside kitchen markets, operating unauthorised three-wheelers on highways, operating vehicles by unlicensed drivers, among other issues, are mainly to blame.
At least 14 people were killed in road accidents in different districts yesterday, report to our correspondents.
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