Ensuring road safety

As road accidents have consecutively increased we must take some measures both short term and long term to contain it by bringing about change in the prevalent situation.

Short term steps
(i) Advertisements to make drivers, pedestrians and others concerned conscious should be publicised through radio, newspaper, television. Leaflet, poster etc. can also play an effective role.

(ii) In most accidents of our country pedestrians are victimised. They should be educated about how to use roads. Media can create public awareness through publicity. In our country, at the beginning general mass had little idea of family planning. Only publicity has created so much public awareness. Besides, drivers should show their patience. They can save themselves, passengers and the transport from danger if they drive with patience.

(iii) Different NGOs may be engaged in this activity. At present, NGOs are investing huge amounts of money in the fields of education, health and so on and so forth. We may try to convince them to keep funds for road safety activities, too.

(iv) Drivers physical and mental conditions and, above all, training with attractive allowance are most important for safety of the occupants of the vehicles as well as safety of the pedestrians. In our country many accidents are caused by ill-trained drivers, some of them even having fake driving licence.

(v) Laws must be enforced and even reinforced, if necessary, to check overloading of all kinds of transports. Government has taken the initiative to resist it many times but it is yet to be visible. In this respect, labour unions may also be engaged to ensure implementation.

Long term plan
(i) Education about use of road, footpath, may be added in our syllabus in the lower classes and advanced ideas may be incorporated in higher classes. This long-term plan, if materialised, will bring about a drastic change in our society; our next generation will gain clear knowledge about road safety.

(ii) Wrong geometric design of roads is one of the cardinal problems. Most of our highways were previously the district council roads, which have been upgraded. As a result, the horizontal alignments in some cases lack proper geometric standard. Unusual curvature on the highway often happen to be so narrow that the drivers can't notice the upcoming vehicle. Every year a huge amount of money is allotted for infrastructure improvement, but it isn't working in proper way.

(iii) The profit that comes from the investment on road safety is more than other fields of the transport. So both the government and other organisations should come forward to invest in and improve condition of road safety measures.

(iv) The slow moving and fast moving vehicles must be separated. Four lanes may be introduced on the highway for smooth moving of the vehicles.

Above all, effective enforcement of traffic rules is one of the prerequisites for road safety and accident prevention. Any good law without effective enforcement is nothing more than a piece of legislation. To ensure road safety, traffic police should be trained to direct their focus on safety issues and enforce law and rules concerned with safety related offences.

It's high time the government had taken urgent steps to formulate a road safety strategy and we all stretched our helping hands to make the motive a success. No more road accidents.

Shahidul Azam is a motor vehicle inspector of BRTA.