Punish reckless drivers to set an example

DESPITE the road safety awareness campaigns that are being conducted, the traffic situation in the capital is worsening. Hardly any day goes by when there is no severe road mishap in the capital. This situation is mainly due to reckless drivers, especially bus drivers, most of whom are unlicensed and have little to no knowledge about traffic rules and road safety.

Sometimes the authority conducts drive against unlicensed drivers and drivers with fake driving licenses. However, these drives last for only a few days, which is why they are ineffective. It is apparent that many of the bus drivers in Dhaka are unlicensed, which is why during the few days of the drive, there is an acute shortage of buses as most of the unlicensed drivers do not take out the busses.

Even after their rough driving and even after getting involved in accidents these drivers are hardly punished. Sometimes investigative committees are formed after bus accidents but the results of these investigations are most often not shared with the public. This is encouraging the bus drivers to continue their rough driving.

Getting more passengers and competing with other bus drivers seem to be their only goal; little do they care about safety of their passengers or of other road users. Their chaotic driving also causes traffic congestion because they stop diagonally on the road to load or unload passengers and to prevent their competitors from passing them, not caring that they are preventing other vehicles also from passing them.

The reckless driving of the buses is forcing many regular passengers to depend on inefficient mode of transport such as paratransit and personal vehicle, which is worsening the city's traffic congestion.

Although the highest punishments for reckless driving in many developed countries is more than ten years' imprisonment, the highest punishment for reckless driving in our country was imprisonment for only three years. What is more disturbing is that only five present of the culprits responsible for accidents were actually punished.

The High Court recently reinstated the highest punishment for reckless driving to seven years' imprisonment. To reduce reckless driving and most importantly to make the roads safer, it is time the authority sets an example by punishing some of the culprit drivers, especially bus drivers.

The writer is a transportation engineer working in Thailand.