National
5 years ago

Road safety panel to make 111 recommendations

Students on Tuesday take to streets demanding proper road safety measures after a student of Bangladesh University of Professionals died in an accident on the road in front of Jamuna Future Park in Dhaka. Focus Bangla/Files
Students on Tuesday take to streets demanding proper road safety measures after a student of Bangladesh University of Professionals died in an accident on the road in front of Jamuna Future Park in Dhaka. Focus Bangla/Files

Published :

Updated :

The road safety panel led by former minister of shipping Shajahan Khan is preparing to submit a report with 111 recommendations on how to restore order to the roads.

Among the proposals in the draft is the creation of a ‘road safety authority’ under the supervision of the prime minister.

“Political commitment is the most necessary element in reducing the risk of road crashes and the creation of discipline on the roads,” the report said.

Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation Acting President Shajahan Khan said the list of recommendations would be submitted to the relevant ministry by April 4.

Road safety issues came to the fore last July when the deaths of two college students in Dhaka led to a mass protest movement that highlighted many deaths in road accidents across the country.

Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader had described road safety as the government’s ‘biggest concern’ at the time. The cabinet, led by the head of the government, issued several orders on road safety amidst the protests.

As a continuation of those efforts, a committee on road safety was formed on February 27 with representatives from transport owners, workers, police, researchers and the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.

Police have conducted several Traffic Week events and other campaigns to raise awareness, but the death toll from road accidents has only continued to climb.

Students took to the streets again on March 19 at Dhaka’s Pragati Sharani after a university student was run over and killed by a bus.

The draft of recommendations prepared by Shajahan Khan’s committee stresses greater focus on road safety, development of road infrastructure, taking necessary steps to prevent accidents, creating greater road safety awareness among the population, and training and raising awareness amongst drivers among others.

Most of the 111 recommendations have previously been made by other panels or reports. The report has also addressed some of the road safety demands of the protesting students.

The high-level committee states that one of the major challenges in formulating recommendations on road safety is the limited time to implement them. The recommendations have thus been broken down into four phases in the report.

The recommendations that can be implemented immediately should be completed by this December, the short term plans by 2021 and the long term plans by 2024, the report said. Another group of recommendations will be ongoing.

The report says the plan was formed in consideration of the country’s continued development, the sincere work of all agencies and the government’s ensuring all necessary facilities.

The report stresses the importance of political commitment because a failure to fulfil these requirements will mean additional time is necessary to implement the recommendations.

Asked why these recommendations would be implemented when other similar proposals had failed in the past, Shajahan Khan said:

 “There have been such recommendations before. The responsibility for implementing them had been on the ministry, the BRTA or the owners and workers associations. But our recommendations are not directed at them. In order to implement these recommendations the government will form one or more task forces. These task forces will be responsible for action on the issue. We are stressing the importance of this.”

BUET Accident Research Institute Assistant Prof Kazi Shifun Newaz, a member of the committee, helped form the recommendations into a report.

“It is possible to restore order to the roads with the implementation of these recommendations,” he said. “Nothing about them is unrealistic. It is possible to implement these recommendations to some extent.”

But the choice of Shajahan Khan, a strong proponent of transport owners and workers on road safety issues, has drawn criticism, even from inside the government. Road safety protesters have also condemned the choice.

Bangladesh Transport Owners Association President Mashiur Rahman Ranga, the Jatiya Party secretary general and the chief whip of the parliamentary opposition, is the committee’s member secretary.

The panel also includes other representatives from road transport owners and workers, journalists and road safety activists.

WHAT ARE THE RECOMMENDATIONS?

>> Issue rules of the Road Transport Act without delay

>> Add road safety issues to school textbooks

>> Allocate 5.0 per cent of funds for road development projects to road safety

>> Strengthen the powers of district and upazila-level road transport councils

>> Allocate government funds to train driving instructors

>> Assign retired members of various security forces as instructors

>> Increase the number of women employed as drivers

>> Advanced training for traffic police

>> Ban rickshaws from Dhaka

>> Limit the number of ride sharing vehicles

>> Restrict motorcycle sales to licensed drivers

>> Set fixed wages of drivers instead of daily wages

>> Franchise bus routes to limit competition on roads

>> Take initiatives to digitally monitor roads

RAISING AWARENESS 

The panel’s first recommendation is to take necessary steps to increase general awareness of road safety issues.

The report recommends requiring free public service messages on road safety rules and raising awareness through various media forms, including through advertisements, billboards and even bus tickets.

The panel also recommends adding traffic laws and road safety issues to the curriculum of grades one through ten.

TRAINING

The committee says that it is necessary to create proper driving schools staffed by trained personnel in every district to train skilled drivers.

The report recommends that the BRTA take the initiative to implement this course of action. It also suggests that private businesses can be given low-interest loans to build such driving schools.

The committee says 1,000 driving instructors should be assigned by 2020, partially by hiring retired security force personnel as instructors.

The report also states that women drivers ‘take fewer risks’ and thus recommends that new opportunities be introduced for women drivers and to raise the number of women employed as drivers.

The report states that advanced training is required for traffic police on issues of road safety, acquiring accident information, investigating accidents and behaviour. They also said initiatives should be taken to treat those injured in road crashes as quickly as possible.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The recommendations also include plans for road infrastructure development and maintenance.

These include removing obstacles and obstruction on footpaths, the construction of new pedestrian walkways, construction of raised zebra crossings in front of schools, colleges and religious institutions and barricading parts of roads for pedestrians.

The report also suggests removing barriers from roads, keeping a 20-metre distance between highways and nearby buildings and to relocate the entrances of any shops near such highways to the opposite side of the building.

It also recommends removing manholes and dustbins from roads and to flatten manholes that cannot be removed so as to prevent accidents.

The committee says that trees and other greenery within 150 feet of any intersection must be removed and that specialised safety tests must be implemented for any new road construction project.

Certain road intersections should be raised so drivers are forced to slow down and service roads must be arranged when roads are blocked for construction or maintenance, the panel said.

Trauma centres and fire stations should also be built at set intervals on roads, while digital monitoring measures such as CCTVs and speed-detecting radar guns must be set up on accident-prone roads.

TRANSPORT

The report suggests banning makeshift vehicles (such as nosimons) from highways and making separate lanes for motorcycles.

Recommendations for reducing traffic accidents in urban areas include franchising of bus routes to prevent competitive driving, installing mobile trackers in vehicles, removing rickshaws from Dhaka roads, limiting the number of ride-sharing vehicles and only selling motorcycles to license holders.

DRIVERS

The panel said that strict measures should be taken to punish any drivers talking on their mobile phones or listening to music on headphones while driving. Any public transport must display photos and identification of drivers and helpers, with their license numbers and phone numbers, in a place visible to passengers, it said.

Any long-haul bus and truck drivers must receive a break every five hours and a replacement driver must be arranged every eight hours, the report said.

It also recommended ending daily appointments for drivers in favour of set wages.

ROAD SAFETY AUTHORITY

The committee has recommended the formation of a road safety authority under the supervision of the prime minister.

The authority will coordinate with relevant institutions, set out plans and oversee their implementation, bdnews24.com reports.

The report has also recommended the full implementation of the road, water transport and rail policy.

The government has also been instructed to allocate funds for research on road safety.

Any road development project must allocate 5.0 per cent of its total funds to road safety initiatives, the committee said.

Its report instructs all road-related institutions to submit 1.0 to 2.0 per cent of annual profits to a road safety fund.

In addition, the panel has recommended that the process by which accident victims receive insurance payments and compensation be simplified and eased.

Share this news