Motor vehicle owners yet to be notified of speed limiters

The government is yet to notify the motor vehicle owners about the installation of speed limiters in their vehicles, which has been made mandatory by the High Court (HC) in March.
In a judgment dated March 10, the HC directed the authorities concerned to take steps to install "speed governor seals" in all modes of public by March 10, 2009 to control speed and reduce road accidents in the country.
The court also directed the government to publish a notification in newspapers asking all motor vehicle owners to install the speed governor seal on their vehicles and saying they would be punished for failure.
Advocate Manzill Murshed, an intervener in the hearing of a suo moto rule, told The Daily Star yesterday that although about three months have passed since the judgment, the authorities have not yet published any notification asking vehicle owners to install speed limiters in their vehicles.
In its judgment, the HC said selling and purchasing of motor vehicles without speed limiters would be declared illegal after March 10, 2009.
If any motor vehicle owner fails to install the speed limiter in their vehicles by that time, they will be fined Tk 200 for each day since expiry of the deadline and Tk 400 for each day since the date of first fine.
As per the eighth schedule of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1983, the maximum speed for light vehicles like private cars is set at 113km per hour (kmph), passenger vehicles like buses and minibuses at 56kmph, heavy vehicles like lorries at 40kmph and fire brigade vehicles at 48kmph.
Advocate Manzill said the traffic police would monitor the speed of vehicles.
A minibus knocked down Sadia Afrin Suchi, a first year student of Dhaka City College, while she was crossing the Mirpur Road at Dhanmondi on December 11 last year.
Following publication of the news, an HC bench comprising Justice ABM Khairul Haque and Justice Abdul Awal issued a suo moto rule upon the government on December 13, asking the authorities to explain why installing speed limiters in public motor vehicles should not be made compulsory.
The secretaries to the home and communications ministries, the chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, and the inspector general of police (IGP) were made the respondents in the rule.
Counsel for the respondents, Deputy Attorney General Dr Naima Haider told the court that there are rules for installing speed governor seals in motor vehicles but those have not been implemented because of various problems and limitations. She, however, acknowledged the necessity of immediate implementation of those rules.
Advocate Abdur Rab Chowdhury and Advocate Manzill Murshed were appointed interveners in the hearing of the rule and they placed before the court some recommendations in this regard.
The full text of the HC judgment was made available to the lawyers concerned on May 29.