Speakers at a roundtable yesterday called for raising awareness among the road users and improving traffic management in order to prevent road accidents.
Ignorance, intolerance and carelessness on the part of drivers, passengers and pedestrians are responsible for over 90 percent of the road accidents, they said, adding that the country suffers an economic loss of Tk 5,000 crore a year because of the road accidents.
According to official statistics, around 10 people are killed a day in road accidents, but the unofficial number is three times higher than that, said Zakir Hossain, executive engineer of Road Safety Division of Roads and Highways Department.
Poor road maintenance, faults in the traffic management, mechanical failures in vehicles, reckless driving, overloading of vehicles, and old and unfit vehicles are responsible for road accidents, he said in his keynote paper.
He also called for launching a road safety awareness campaign and community-based publicity campaign to reduce the number of road accidents.
Sheba Bangladesh Foundation (SBF) and Organisation for Development of the Underprivileged (ODU) organised the roundtable styled 'Human rights and secured life: from the perspective of road accident' at the Press Institute of Bangladesh in the city.
Speaking as the chief guest, ASM Shahjahan, former adviser to a caretaker government, said, "We have to include all the stakeholders, including drivers, passengers, pedestrians, school goers and Imams of the mosques in the road safety awareness campaign."
He also said that the media can play an important role in this regard.
The number of road accidents could be reduced if the government agencies concerned do their work properly, he said and suggested installing latest traffic signal system and providing scientific dresses to the traffic police.
Former inspector general of police (IGP) Ismail Hussain said it is necessary to enact and enforce laws to check road accidents.
The speakers also suggested incorporating the road safety issue into school curriculum.
Former chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Syed Marghub Morshed, former lawmaker Golam M Siraj, Prof Dr Abdur Rahim, engineer FM Rashiduzzaman, Prof Dr Sawkat Ara Hossain, chairman of SBF, and Iqbal Ahmed, chairman of ODU, also spoke.
Kamrul Islam Siddique, former chief engineer of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), presided over the roundtable moderated by Shamsul Huda, vice chairman of SBF.