Blatant disregard for traffic rules

A picture on the back page of this newspaper on April 11 shows a number of young men scaling an iron railing on the Dhaka-Aricha highway to cross the road in Savar Bus Stand area. Such sights are very common both on highways and on city roads. What it points to is our disregard for traffic rules, which are there for public safety, but apparently our citizens think it quite within their rights to break the law whenever they feel like it. One might ask precisely what would happen if one of these jay walkers lost a footing here or there and impaled himself on one of these iron spikes. Has it dawned upon any of the young men (shown in the picture) that they may cause themselves serious harm whilst trying to perform this insane act, just to spare themselves a few extra yards of walking?

We talk about road safety and how transport drivers drive recklessly on the roads. We have written endlessly about jaywalking and how they increase the likelihood of accidents. What we now need are stiff penalties for jaywalkers who put oncoming traffic at risk because they just feel like crossing the road or highway whenever and wherever they wish to. City corporations and local municipalities have put up foot-over bridges so that pedestrians may cross the road safely. But it appears that our citizens are more at ease jumping over fences because they are either too lazy to take the overhead passes or think it is the responsibility of oncoming traffic to swerve past them. Enough is enough. It is time to penalise lawbreakers with fines that will make the practice of jaywalking so expensive that it will act as a deterrent.