MIZAN RAHMAN

Death on the road, again
One more road mishap has claimed the lives of a young couple in the capital. This new tragedy only increases our level of concern about how safe we all are on the streets, especially when the roads appear to be hostage to reckless and untrained drivers. In these past few weeks, rash driving has put an end to a good number of lives. And now another bus driver has snuffed out two more lives. The worry now is whether the traffic authorities have in these recent weeks at all taken any steps to roll back casualties on the road, through making sure that driving is safe and that when accidents do occur those responsible for the accidents are swiftly dealt with by the law.
Even as we speak of the hazards citizens normally face on the roads, there are the structural problems afflicting our traffic system we cannot ignore, such as road space limitations. Consider some other glaring instances of what has been going wrong on the roads. Most of the vehicles which have lately caused accidents are not road worthy at all and yet the authorities have not been able to clamp down on them. These vehicles, dilapidated to the extreme, operate on city streets without headlights as well as rear lights. The brakes almost always are in bad shape, thus increasing the possibility of disasters taking place. Indeed, when these buses sometimes break down, it is seen that they do not have the necessary tools that can restore them to functioning order. And that is not all. There are very valid grounds to think that the licences issued to drivers, a very large number of whom are ill trained for the job, are false. With little or no knowledge of basic road safety rules, because they have not received proper training in driving, these drivers get behind the wheels of vehicles and so pose a clear threat to life and property from day one. Instances of such shortcomings are plenty. Generally, these drivers park their vehicles not in designated spaces but in areas that include the middle of busy roads to pick up passengers in a most callous manner.
Much debate has gone on about the ways and means of making roads safe for citizens. It is quite clear, though, that some priorities must be set where ensuring such safety is concerned. While traffic policemen must be thoroughly professional in their work, the larger body of citizens itself must be made fully cognizant of road regulations. The sight of people crossing roads through a clear violation of traffic rules is common. Jaywalking is a problem we have not yet come to terms with. The police can be firm here, but all that they do is ignore such transgressions.
In a very fundamental sense, people do need to be acquainted with road-related regulations. More than that, it is the BRTA and police who must prove that they can do their job to public satisfaction. Part of that job is to ensure discipline on the roads. But when such discipline is broken, it is their responsibility to slap down exemplary punishment on those who break discipline