Road safety as political issue

Given that a large number of people die and are incapacitated for life every year, the idea that road safety be taken up as a political agenda by the political parties, has very strong rationale. It was mooted by Ilias Kanchan recently.

The rate of road accident deaths is alarming. Reportedly, 85 people out of every 10,000 die every year in road crashes in Bangladesh, the highest in the world. And according to Bangladesh Passengers' Welfare Association, at least 8,642 people were killed and 21,855 injured in road crashes across the country last year alone. 

Although there is a wide gap between the government and the WHO figures of death, varying from 3,000 to 20,000, the casualty figure is much too high not to be addressed as a problem that has acquired epidemic proportions in Bangladesh. Apart from the human aspect of the matter we wonder whether we realise the impact that road crashes have on the economy, not to speak of the serious strain on the country's health care system. 

Although all the stake holders have a role to play in ameliorating the situation, the lead role must be taken by the government and the private and public service providers who operate on the highways, and it is on the highways that most of the crashes occur. 

Various organisations have offered suggestions from time to time to arrest the ever increasing number of road crashes. Although the government has taken some steps to rectify faulty design and construction of the roads, the regime of impunity still prevails. We believe that all the political parties should address the matter like a disaster that the country is continuously going through.