'Enact law to prevent road accidents'

The Families United Against Road Accident, a platform of families who lost their near and dear ones to road crashes, placed an 11-point demand, including enactment of a law, to prevent road accidents.
A huge number of people died in road accidents every year because of reckless driving, but the drivers always go unpunished using the loopholes of law, said Ekram Ahmed, coordinator of the organisation at a press conference at the National Press Club in the city yesterday.
He called for enacting an effective law to punish the killer drivers and to prevent road accident.
Blaming the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) officials for giving licences to unfit vehicles, Ekram said drive against such vehicles must be launched to reduce road accidents.
He also urged the people from all walks of life to put in concerted efforts to check road accidents.
Other demands include implementing motor vehicle laws properly, declaring the killing in road accidents as non-bailable offence, cancelling fake driving licences, removing all unfit vehicles from roads, ensuring punishment to the killer drivers, creating massive awareness, improving the skills of drivers and incorporating the road safety issue in school curriculum.
Human rights activist and TV actress Tarana Halim, Siddiqur Rahman, Monwar Hossain and Yasmin Ara were present at the press conference.