Editorial
Curbing road accidents
The most obvious solution ignored
Late last week, the Asian Crime Prevention Foundation Bangladesh (ACPF, B) held a seminar on road safety with exhibits of accident victims presented on the sidelines designed to sensitise all concerned about the high incidence of road and highway tragedies. It is true we need to raise awareness among vehicle drivers, pedestrians and passengers about traffic rules and signs, but this is only touching on the fringe of the issue rather than addressing it head-on.The speakers drew upon some survey reports to say that drivers are responsible for 80 percent of road accidents and that 84 percent of vehicles do not have any fitness certificate. In other words, the odds against road safety, in a manner of speaking, work out to an absurd 164 to 100! This is a screaming indictment on our road and traffic management deficiencies. Reading between the pair of statistics, on the licensing side it is safe to assume that many novices have obtained drivers' licences in a deviant manner and that many of the licences carried by drivers could have been actually forged. As for the fitness of vehicles, most of them do not have any road-worthiness certificate and those that have are suspected to have been obtained through underhand dealings. In other words, it is corruption in the organisations and agencies mandated to ensure road safety and proper traffic management that is at the heart of the problem. So, the principal reason for road accidents lies in man-made factors which, needless to say, are eminently controllable and containable. In other words, there is a no-nonsense house-cleaning job to be done there, before we turn our attention to the other rather peripheral causes of road accidents. The speakers have recommended enactment of stringent laws to curb road accidents. We believe though that absence of law is not so much of a problem as non-or misapplication of the law is.
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