Question: Road accidents are not shocking news any more. Due to the absence of organized road transport system and lack of effective implementation of existing traffic laws, road accidents have been increasing at an alarming rate which causing heavy tolls of lives and damage to property.
Answer:
Introduction:
Being the world’s most densely populated country[1] Bangladesh is not much developed with modern roads and transportation infrastructure and traffic system. Roads are merely sufficient to meet the high demand of vehicles and human passengers. There is extreme lack of existence and implementation of traffic laws, and the law enforcement authority is not equipped enough to monitor the traffic system. Most of the vehicles are not properly tested by the government authority before obtaining fitness certificate. On top of that, people are in general very much unaware of traffic rules. As a result, road accidents are becoming regular news in the country. Without any injuries and casualties due to road accident, there is usually not a single day.
Most alarmingly, there are not many initiatives taken by government authorities to prevent road accidents, both in big cities and highways. In developed world, with the perfect implementation of modern technology they have been quite successful to reduce the number of road accidents and also damages caused by it. Therefore, it is also important in Bangladesh too follow their footprints to ensure safety in our transportation system.
Effects of Road Accidents on People and Economy of Bangladesh:
In Bangladesh road accident is increasing day by day with the increase death rate of the people. Comparing to other countries of the world, Bangladesh faces the most numbers of road accidents. In world wide around 10,000 people dies in road accidents per year and so many gets injured or handicapped.[2] According to government research around 63,000 road accidents had occurred in Bangladesh in last 20 years and 45,000 people died and 55,000 were injured. Newspaper reported around 10 to 15 people daily due to road accidents.[3] Yearly, 12,000 people of Bangladesh losing their lives due to road accidents.[4]
According to private research reports it is said to be more than 12,000 people who dies in road accidents. These reports are made by the information collected from different news, hospitals and police reports.[5] Traffic accident in developed accounts only two to three percent of accidental deaths in developed countries where as in Bangladesh it’s almost half of accidental deaths. In a workshop on increasing skills and awareness of drivers it was found that traffic mishaps accounted for 47 percent accidental deaths in Bangladesh.[6] Thousands of people are killed in road accidents every year and that national resources worth billions of taka are destroyed.[7] Road accidents cost about 2 percent of the GDP in Bangladesh. [8] Road accidents cause loss of about 40 billion taka per year.
In the year 2009 there were around 552 road accidents and in this accidents 328 people died and 292 were injured and drivers responsible in this accidents are around 540 and caused due to pedestrian were 12.[9] According to LGED[10] project director around 10,000 people have been killed over the last year in traffic mishaps while more than 11,000 have become disabled.[11] Around 70 to 80 percent of road accidents occur on highways and rural roads in Bangladesh and pedestrian involved in 70 percent of road accidents.[12] Traffic deaths not only affect family income but also have large effect on the country’s socio-economic scenario.
The reasons behind road accidents in Bangladesh
Bangladesh being a country with lots of river, the road transport system plays an important role. The number of registered motor vehicles increased steadily by 62% over the last decade from 3, 39,448 in 1990 to 5, 51,011 in 2000.[13] Other than motorized vehicles there are non motorized vehicles like rickshaws and vans. The increasing number of vehicles from time to time demands organized roads and transports system and lack of roads can be one of the major reasons for road accidents.
The principle causes of road accident are adverse road side environment, poor detailed designs in junctions and road sections, excessive speeding, overloading, dangerous overtaking, reckless driving, carelessness of road users, failure to obey mandatory traffic regulations, variety of vehicles characteristics and defects in vehicles and there can be some other reasons like low level of awareness on part of the policy makers of the safety problem, inadequate and unsatisfactory education, inadequate rules and regulation, inadequate and unsatisfactory traffic law enforcement and sanctions.[14]
One main reason can be due to the duplicate or fake licenses that are being used by unfit drivers. Some vehicle stops picks passengers from roads where parking or stopping is not allowed causes rush and accidents. Vehicles which are unfit and still being driven have more chances to cause accidents because of brake failure or other malfunctioning. Environment around the road e.g. error of drivers of other vehicles like bullock carts, cycles, rickshaw, jay walking, pedestrians, school children being run over, cattle or dogs etc. running onto roads.[15]
How to prevent road accidents in Bangladesh?
Answers to the question differ from person to person but all of them want the same result that is the end of road accidents in Bangladesh. Enforcing law and punishment against the culprit to cause the accident and those people should also be punished who are involved in giving license to those who don’t know well about driving vehicles and allow those vehicles which are not fit to driven on roads by taking bribes was said by expert.[16]
Government is taking actions to improve the situation and the result will be soon seen and to stop it people should also be socially aware about the situation.[17] Increase of traffic polices and their responsibilities with the development of traffic system. The police should perform their task seriously instead of taking bribes and setting the culprit free. In 2009 CMS Court informed that 19 cases decision were made on road accidents which had occurred before 2008 in which eight of them got bailed and rest eleven paid the fine, this shows no one got imprisoned.[18] It proves us how weak our law and order in our country and by the current way to taking action on the offender will not improve the situation or it will not help in decreasing road accident. The solutions to road accidents can new innovative high-tech innovations like energy absorption system and safety barriers at increased impact speeds are highly effective in saving life and ITS[19]can reduce jams and hazards by a big margin as it can advance in navigation system and optimization of traffic management with increasing efficiency in road management.[20]
There should be effective implementation of existing traffic laws and I will discuss about certain drawbacks and weakness about the traffic laws. Some prevention measures from road accidents can be by restricting certain travel and deny access to certain hazardous situations, the design, construction and maintenance of vehicles and road system and traffic control management and devices, road user education, recovery and treatment measures of the victim and by providing guidance, information to the drivers regarding the traffic laws and different situations.[21]
The support to Government from iRAP[22] that the roads and highways division to make road safe during the decade of action for road safety from 2011 to 2010.[23] Steering /single axle with 2tyres, single rear axle with 4 tyres, rigid, single steering and one rear axle, articulated, 3 axle prime mover and closely spaced 4 axle trailer can carry maximum 5.5,10.00,13.00,44.00 tons and so many vehicles have maximum weight limit to carry.[24] Sometime overloading of goods and passengers in vehicles can cause road accidents. So, the police and the authority should be active and take their responsibilities serious to perform their jobs according to the jurisdiction.
Existing Traffic Laws in Bangladesh
Some important traffics laws a person should know before driving a vehicle on road. These laws are not known to many illiterate drivers and some of the laws are not implemented in different situations. The first thing a person need to prove that he or she can drive and needs qualification in the form of license. Necessity of driving license states that no person shall drive a motor vehicle in public place unless the person holds an effective license.[25] Driving without license shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extent to four months or with fine which is 500 tk.[26] I have found that due to the weakness of the law people take advantage of it. Necessity for registration, states that no person shall drive motor vehicle in public places with passengers or goods unless the vehicle is not registered accordingly and hold registration certificate.[27]
Using of motor vehicle without registration or certificate of fitness the punishment would be for the first time offender 2000 tk. fine and three months imprisonment and second time the offender will have to pay 5000 tk. fine and six months imprisonment.[28] There are many drivers who don’t possess the original license and many vehicles which not registered but the vehicles are on roads. Though they are laws to stop it but not implemented strictly. Limits of speed where no person shall drive a motor vehicles in public place exceeding the maximum speed fixed under ordinance.[29] If a driver exceeds the speed limit he or she is punishable for imprisonment for one month or fine of 300 tk. or both.[30] Driving at high speed leads to road accidents in most cases.
Limits of weight and limitation on use say that government may prescribe conditions for the issue of permits for heavy motor vehicles by the transport committees and restrict the use of vehicles in any area or route in Bangladesh.[31]
Parking places and halting stations – the government and authority determined place at which motor vehicles may stand either indefinitely or specified period of time.[32]
Duty to obey traffic signs- every motor vehicle should follow the mandatory traffic signs and conformity with the driving regulations.[33] When any person is injured or any property is damaged as the result of an accident in which a motor vehicle is involved, the driver of the vehicle or other person in charge of the vehicle shall take all reasonable steps to secure medical attention for the injured person and give any information required by the police officer.[34]
A driver who drives recklessly or dangerously are punished for the first time for six months imprisonment or 500 tk. or both and for second time 1000 tk. fine and six months imprisonment.[35] I have seen any of the reckless drivers were punished and there is no proper utilization of the law. Every vehicle have got some permissible weight to carry and if it exceeds the weight than it will be punishable for 1000 tk. and six months imprisonment or both in first instance but in second instance 2000 tk. fine and six months imprisonment.[36] There is no sign of using this law as we can see every passenger bus carry passengers more than its limits and same goes for the trucks carrying excess quantity. There are many more traffic laws among them some are very weak to improve the situation and others are not being utilized to its full potential because of the corruption taking place in the country and negligence of the police to take actions.
Road Accidents and Traffic Laws on Global Perspective
Highly motorized countries like North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Western Europe yearly accident injury estimates about approximately around 11 million and low motorized countries between 12 to 23 million and for global assessment its between 23 to 24 million road accident per annum.[37] Accidents are one of the major causes of death and disability. The NHS spends about £1.2 billion each year on the treatment of injuries; and for children and young people, accidents are the greatest threat to life.[38] In higher-income nations, road traffic accidents are already among the top ten leading causes of disease burden in 1998 as measured in DALYs (disability-adjusted life years).
In less developed countries, road traffic accidents were the most significant cause of injuries, ranking eleventh among the most important causes of lost years of healthy life.[39] In England motor vehicle accidents accounted for about 327,544 injuries in 1997 with 42,967 serious injuries and 3,599 fatalities.[40] In 1995 a Reuter’s news article put 1994 road deaths in Italy at 6,000 according to ISTAT, the National Institute of Statistics in Italy.
Based on that figure, we estimate 1994 motor vehicle injuries in Italy to be around 550,000 with about 71,000 of them serious. In 2003 there were 6,328,000 car accidents in the US. There were 2.9 million injuries and 42,643 people were killed in auto accidents.[41] In all nations other than Bangladesh use of seat belt is compulsory and wearing of helmet by traffic laws. All western nations follow the traffic laws strictly but in Bangladesh it is neglected. In western nations there is an immediate medical service provided to the victim but it lacks in Bangladesh.
Conclusion
From my research and analysis, it is apparent that the main reasons behind road accidents are the deficiencies of proper laws, application of existing laws, and moreover lack of awareness among passengers and drivers. Corruption by government authority and law enforcement agencies also intensifies the problem. Therefore, to make a better and safe transportation system, it is important for every citizen to be respectful of our country’s laws and the legislation bodies should be concerned about making necessary amendments to existing laws. Though there are traffic laws to prevent road accidents it needs to be implemented and the police officers need to perform their jobs seriously and well.
The government should take actions and punish those who accepts bribes and set the culprit to cause road accidents free. The increasing number of vehicles from time demands organized roads and transports system. The vehicles should not be allowed to exceed the speed limit and overloading of passengers or goods should be banned, dangerous overtaking, reckless driving, and carelessness of road users must be punished, driver should not fail to obey mandatory traffic regulations, all the vehicles should pass the fitness test and should be registered before being driven on the road.
Bibliography:
1. Bangladesh Perspective. Regional Health Forum, Vol. 8.
2. Hoque, M.M. Road Traffic Accidents: “The Context of Bangladesh”
3. Dr. Hoque, M.M.; Solaiman, T.A.S; Khondaker, Bidoura and Sarkar, Sudipta. Road Safety in Bangladesh: “Overview Of Problems, Progress, Priorities And Options”
4. Jacobs, G.D. And Thomas A.A. “A Review of Global Accident Fatalities”, 1999.
5. Bangladesh Gazette, May 5, 2004. Ministry of Communication
6. MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE, 1983, Modified 1990, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
7. Kendrick D, Groom L, Hippisley-Cox J, et al; Accidental injury: a neglected area within Primary Care Groups and Trusts? Health Education Res. June 18, 2003.
8. www.worldatlas.com
9. Prothom-Alo newspaper
10. Shamokal newspaper
11. The Daily Star newspaper
12. The Daily Ittefaq
13. www.bdnews24.com
14. www.safecarguide.com
15. www.car-accidents.com
16. www.mahapwd.com
17. www.newstoday.com
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[1] Populations of the World, www.worldatlas.com, Accessed: November 5, 2010
[2] Road accident – “History of unstoppable tears”; Prothom Alo, August 3,2009
[3] Umar, Bodruddin; “Road accident and related questions”; Shamokal, June 6,2010
[4] Ahsan, Mokimul H.; “Road accidents kills 12,000 people yearly”;The Daily Ittefaq, 0ctober 23,2010
[5] Dr.Haque, Shamsul; Bangladesh Engineering University of Accident Research Institute.
[6] “Mishaps behind half of accident deaths”; www.bdnews24.com, October 16,2010; Accessed: October 30, 2010
[7] Rahman, Aiyubur M.; Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA); www.bdnews24.com; Accessed: October 30, 2010
[8] “Road accidents cost two percent of GDP in Bangladesh”; Daily Star, June 4,2005
[9] Jahan Ishrat T.; “ Modernization and improvement of traffic law can stop road accidents”; www.askbd.org; Accessed: October 30, 2010
[10] LGED stands for “Local Government Engineering Department”
[11] Rahman, Syed M.; “10,000 killed in road crash last year”; www.newstoday.com; Accessed: October 30, 2010
[12] Hoque, M.M. (2004). Road Accident Problems: The Bangladesh Perspective. Regional Health Forum, Vol. 8, No.1.
[13] Hoque, M.M. (2004). Road Accident Problems: The Bangladesh Perspective. Regional Health Forum, Vol. 8, No.1.
[14] Hoque, M.M. (2004). Road Accident Problems: The Bangladesh Perspective. Regional Health Forum, Vol. 8, No.1.
[15] Accident Prevention Committee, www.mahapwd.com, accessed: November 5, 2010.
[16] Ahsan, Mokimul H.; “Road accidents kill 12,000 people yearly”; The Daily Ittefaq, 0ctober 23, 2010.
[17] Ahmed, Tanjim S. “Road Accident In Bangladesh Is Like Silent Tsunami”; Prothom Alo, October 17, 2010.
[18] “Road Accident in Bangladesh Is Like Silent Tsunami”; Prothom Alo, October 17, 2010.
[19] ITS stands for Intelligent Transport System
[20] Dr. Hoque, M.M.; Solaiman, T.A.S; Khondaker, Bidoura and Sarkar, Sudipta. Road Safety in Bangladesh: Overview Of Problems, Progress, Priorities And Options
[21] Hoque, M.M. (2004). Road Accident Problems: The Bangladesh Perspective. Regional Health Forum, Vol. 8, No.1.
[22] iRAP stands for International Road Assessment Programme
[23] Hoque, M.M.(October 15,2010) .Road Traffic Accidents: The Context of Bangladesh
[24] Maximum Permissible Axle and Laden Weights Limit For Motor Vehicles, Bangladesh Gazette, May 5, 2004. Ministry of Communication
[25] Article 2, Necessity Of driving license, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE, 1983, Modified 1990, chap. 2, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[26] Article 138,sub-section (1),section 3, Offences , Penalties And Procedure, chap.10, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE,1983, Modified 1990, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[27] Article 32, Necessity of registration, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE,1983, Modified 1990, chap. 4, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[28] Article 152, section 32,47 and subsection (1),section 51. Offences, Penalties And Procedure, chap.10, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE,1983, Modified 1990, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[29] Article 85, (1), Limits of speed, Control of Traffic, chap.7, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE,1983, Modified 1990, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[30] Article 142, section 85,Offences , Penalties And Procedure, chap.10, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE,1983, Modified 1990, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[31] Article 86, (1), Limits of speed, Control of Traffic, chap.7, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE,1983, Modified 1990, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[32] Article 90, parking places and halting stations, Control of Traffic, chap.7, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE,1983, Modified 1990, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[33] Article 92, Duty to obey traffic signs, Control of Traffic, chap.7, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE,1983, Modified 1990, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[34] Article 104; Duty of driver in case of accident and injury to a person, Control of Traffic, chap.7, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE, 1983, Modified 1990, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[35] Article 143, Driving recklessly or dangerously, Offences , Penalties And Procedure, chap.10, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE,1983, Modified 1990, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[36] Article 154; Section 86, 88, Offences, Penalties and Procedure, chap.10, THE MOTOR VEHICLES ORDINANCE, 1983, Modified 1990, Ministry Of Law and Land Reforms.
[37] Jacobs, G.D. and Thomas A.A.; “A REVIEW OF GLOBAL ACCIDENT FATALITIES”, 1999.
[38] Kendrick D, Groom L, Hippisley-Cox J, et al; Accidental injury: a neglected area within Primary Care Groups and Trusts? Health Education Res. June 18, 2003.
[39] International Injury & Fatality Statistics, www.safecarguide.com, accessed: November 5, 2010.
[40] Department of Environment, Transport, and the Regions, united kingdom.
[41] Car Accident Statistics, www.car-accidents.com, accessed: November 5, 2010.