Why procession of deaths on roads during Eid holidays?

This year's Eid was a 9-day public holiday. In these nine days, more than 50 people lost their lives in road accidents across the country. More than 100 were injured. These brutal accidents can be compared to an epidemic. It is better to call them murders instead of just calling them accidents. How unsafe and insecure are the roads of a country when more than 50 people die in road accidents in just nine days!

According to news published in the media on Saturday (April 5), tragic accidents started happening in different parts of the country since March 30, the day before Eid. People have died like insects in various accidents such as auto-rickshaws being hit by buses, motorcycles losing control and falling into ditches, head-on collisions between two buses, buses losing control and falling into ditches, and collisions of buses with pillars. According to the media reports, most of the accidents involved motorcycles and auto-rickshaws.

Earlier, there have been reports of numerous deaths in motorcycle accidents during various Eid seasons. News of auto-rickshaw accidents also often comes in the media. There have been many talks of banning auto-rickshaws on highways or busy roads; but in reality, it has not been implemented. Last November, auto-rickshaw drivers protested by blocking roads in the capital in protest of the announcement to ban battery-powered rickshaws on the main roads of Dhaka.

Although the ban on autorickshaws is often heard, there has never been an announcement of banning or controlling motorcycles. Meanwhile, the number of motorcycles is increasing all over the country, including Dhaka. Many people buy motorcycles these days to avoid traffic jams or to reach their destinations quickly. Most of the drivers of these motorcycles are young, and sometimes teenagers are seen competing in groups to ride motorcycles. No one even considers whether there are roads in Bangladesh that are suitable for riding these high-speed motorcycles. There is probably no family in Bangladesh that has not had a family member, friend or relative die in a motorcycle accident. Young people ride motorcycles at reckless speeds. Motorcycles are like a suicide trap in Bangladesh.

Investigating the reasons behind the massive loss of life on the roads in such a short period of time, the previously known reasons came back. In a word, it can be said that most of the accidents occurred due to the reckless speed of the drivers. But the question is, why were there no speed control systems on the roads? The highway police say that they have been working on road safety preparations since before Eid. So where is that safety?

Who can be blamed for this? The driver or the law enforcement agencies? The fact that Bangladesh is an extremely chaotic country can be understood by looking at the anarchy on the roads. Even though the people of the country have repeatedly demanded road safety, defective vehicles are still roaming around. The steering of the car is in the hands of incompetent drivers. There is no structural organisation to monitor road safety. Small vehicles like easy bikes, three-wheelers, and nosimon-karimon could not be stopped from plying on the highway. There is an excess of vehicles on relatively narrow roads, dangerous road bends are not marked, and there is a lack of necessary speed bumps. For these reasons, the country saw a painful procession of deaths on relatively empty roads and highways during the Eid holidays.

We don't want to see this procession of deaths anymore. We want road safety to be strengthened at any cost. For that, the government must take stricter measures. The government must adopt more conscious policies to prevent road accidents.