More than 500 deaths in 58 days

More than 500 people were killed in the last 58 days according to a newspaper report and 17 on Saturday alone as road accidents continue to be a grave risk to public safety, as shown by the findings of the Bangladesh Health Injury Survey (BHIS)-2016 report released earlier in February. The BHIS-2016 report, carried out by the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB), revealed that road accidents, on average, kill 64 people in the country every day.

That is an astoundingly high number. And even more astounding when added up to find the number of deaths from road accidents for the whole year — 23,166. In fact, according to World Bank data, Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of death from road accidents in the world. With all this data available and given the severity of what they imply, one would expect the authorities to take the matter seriously.

Unfortunately, that is far from what seems to be the case. Despite the recent announcements by the authorities of launching drives against unfit vehicles and drivers without licences, there is no noticeable improvements as these drives, similar to all previous ones, seem to have withered out even before they began. Illustrating clearly the main reason why Bangladesh has failed to tackle this menace for years now — apathy on part of the authorities.

Thus, only a change in attitude can bring about any significant changes to the horrific condition of road safety in the country. We hope such changes come sooner rather than later, so that no more innocent lives need to be lost before that.