Bangladesh observing UN Road Safety Week

Bangladesh is observing United Nations (UN) Global Road Safety Week for the first time with the slogan “Save lives, speak up” -- aiming to generate awareness for curbing road accidents, which has become a major concern.

Nazrul Islam, secretary of Road Transport and Highway Division, inaugurated the week-long programme on Manik Mia Avenue yesterday.

UN Global Road Safety Week-2019 will be observed across the country with different programmes till May 12, with “Leadership for Road Safety” as its theme.

While inaugurating the programme, Nazrul Islam said Bangladesh is observing the week for the first time in order to raise awareness on road safety.

“Safe roads are possible if all of us work together,” he said.

Road safety campaigner Ilias Kanchan said, “We are all here to raise our voices for safe roads.”

All agencies under the road transport and bridges ministry, road safety campaigners, road transport owners and workers took part in the inaugural programme. These agencies will hold separate programmes throughout the week.

Educational institutions and NGOs will also hold similar programmes.

World Health Organization and its partners in February had already created a website for the road safety week.

The programme aims to generate public demand for strong road safety leadership worldwide to help achieve SDGs and other road safety targets, according to the WHO website.

The road safety week was observed in 2007, 2013, 2015 and 2017, it said.