Please enforce traffic rules

A photo of a woman with a school-going child crossing the rail tracks ignoring the oncoming train and one of a man jumping over the road divider to cross the road rather than using the foot-over bridge in the vicinity, were printed in a newspaper a few days ago. Such type of photos portraying irresponsible and reckless road behaviour are printed quite regularly.

The disturbing reality is that this type of road behaviour is not an isolated event. It is happening all over the country regularly, which is the main reason why the rate of road accidents is very high.

Road accidents can be drastically reduced if road users are aware of road safety and obey the traffic rules. Therefore, it is important to assess the reason for the lack of road safety awareness among most of us.

Unlike most developed countries, the topic of road safety is not integrated in the school curriculum in our country. In contrast to children in the developed countries, most children here do not learn the rules of traveling on the road safely from their parents as most parents sometimes move recklessly and irresponsibly while on the road with their children. Furthermore, road safety awareness programme is not conducted regularly, which is why people are less aware of road safety. However, this is not the main reason for which most people disrespect road safety and traffic laws.

Even though most of us disobey the traffic rules at home, we strictly adhere to the traffic rules when we go abroad.

This change in our behaviour as road users occurs because we are aware that traffic rules are enforced very strictly in those countries. Road users including pedestrians violating the traffic rules are heavily penalised through fines, getting their driving license suspended and even getting jailed.

The situation is very different here. Traffic rules are hardly enforced. This prompts road users to travel recklessly and irresponsibly, risking their lives and also the lives of other road users. The road safety awareness campaigns that are conducted in the country are mostly in vain and will continue to be of no use unless traffic rules are strictly enforced.

As an op-ed writer in The Daily Star suggested, the traffic police should pick a day and then enforce the traffic laws on that day. With the revenue generated from the fines the city will be also able to fix the many potholes on the roads.

The writer is a Transportation Engineer working in Thailand.