Transport workers' rally

The rally held by transport workers and owners at the Central Shaheed Minar could be more propitious if the Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan, who is also the executive president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers' Federation, underscored the responsibility of the drivers in keeping the road fatalities under check rather than on launching a diatribe on the media. Media and the civil society, he would have us believe, have joined hands to instil a sense of antagonism between passengers and transport workers.
What intrigues us is while the communications minister Syed Abul Hossain persuaded the anti-road accident campaigner Ilias Kanchan to break his hunger strike, the shipping minister, on the other hand, seems to have taken a controversial line. What he said amounts to giving indulgence to transport workers. His contention that no murder case can be filed against drivers since they are not solely responsible for accidents may not be illogical on the face of it but surely this gives a kind of immunity to prosecution as far as the untrained and erratic drivers go. If drivers cannot be held accountable for the fatalities caused by their reckless, irresponsible driving; this is tantamount to officially offering them a right to impunity. If an accident is proven through investigation to have been caused by gross negligence of the driver, then it surely is an unnatural death which should be dealt with as a criminal offence no less than a murder. So the existing law to put rash drivers to trial must be amended to ensure their accountability.
We note that an 11-point list of demands has been raised by the transport workers and owners, including those related to setting up of driving training centres in every district, immediate action against fake driving license sellers and a massive campaign to create mass awareness among people at large against taking law into their hands. Most of their demands are legitimate and should merit consideration of the government.