Curbing Road Crashes: Govt steps confined to talks, committees

Government steps for curbing road crashes and bringing discipline in the road transport sector continue to remain confined to holding meetings and forming committees and sub-committees.

The committees make similar recommendations time and again, but those are hardly  implemented.

In the meantime, road crashes continue to take a heavy toll on lives and properties.

Experts made the observation while talking to The Daily Star yesterday after a taskforce, formed for the government cause, held a closed-door meeting to discuss recommendations by four sub-committees.

After the meeting, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters, "The four sub-committees made recommendations on implementing 111 recommendations [given by a committee] on curbing road crashes and bringing discipline in the transport sector. We have discussed those. We will hold more discussions in the next meeting."

"We are implementing those recommendations slowly," he said, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic as a reason.

The committee, led by transport leader and former shipping minister Shajahan Khan, had submitted its report to the prime minister in April last year along with the 111-point recommendation.

Later in October last year, the government issued a gazette, forming the 33-member taskforce, led by the home minister, to implement the recommendations.

Among others, secretaries of 11 ministries and divisions were made ex-officio members of the taskforce.

In its first meeting, held on November 24 last year, the taskforce coopted three additional members and assigned four secretaries to recommend and plan how the recommendations can be implemented.

The second meeting of the taskforce was held yesterday. Many of its members attended the meeting virtually.

SAME DISCUSSION, NO ACTION

Noted transport expert Prof Shamsul Hoque, also a member of the taskforce, said he joined the meeting but did not take part in the discussion since there was nothing new.

"The same issues, which were discussed after the formation of the NRSC [National Road Safety Council' in late 90's], were discussed again in the meeting. I found I would not be able to add any value [to the discussion]," he said. 

Shamsul, also a former director of Accident Research Institute of Buet, said what should have been done is well documented. Still, it has not been done. "Why those [recommendations] could not be implemented? A problem cannot be solved without finding the reasons," he said.

Without strengthening institutional capacity, ensuring accountability and executing time-bound action plans, formation of such taskforce will not yield any results, he added.

Noted columnist Syed Abul Maksud, another member of the taskforce, said instead of forming committees after committees, some concrete steps must be taken since deaths in road accidents are on the rise. 

Despite the Covid-19-induced shutdown for two months, 2,891 people were killed in 3,000 accidents till September, according to police figures.

According to organisations working for road safety, the numbers are higher.

Last year, 4,138 lives perished in 4,147 road accidents, says a police report.

Among the 111 recommendations given by the Shajahan Khan-led committee, 50 were supposed to be implemented by 2019, 32 by 2021 and the rest by 2024.

ARI Asst Prof Kazi Shifun Newaz, another taskforce member, said as the 50 recommendations could not be implemented in 2019, those should be implemented within 2021.

Bangladesh Road Transport Workers' Federation General Secretary Osman Ali, also a taskforce member, said they urged the authorities to implement the recommendations quickly.

Asked why the taskforce was taking so long to start implementing the recommendations, the home minister said, "We're not taking too much time."

Mentioning that most bikers and pillion riders now wear helmets, he said, "We are implementing those recommendations gradually. We have discussed how those could be implemented quickly."

Road Transport and Highway Division Secretary Nazrul Islam, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Shafiqul Islam, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority Chairman Nur Mohammad Mazumder, Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik Federation's acting president Shajahan Khan, Mashiur Rahman Ranga and Khondaker Enayet Ullah, who are president and secretary general of Bangladesh Road Transport Owners Association, also took part in the meeting.