Making human haulers safe

Human hauler, locally known as leguna, is an accident-prone vehicle. Most of these modified utility vehicles are inherently flawed in terms of structural design. According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority's engineering department, the bodies of these vehicles are made locally but their chassis are imported. These chassis are mainly built for transporting goods but the bodies built on them carry passengers. These human haulers, which are almost all the time overcrowded and run by underage drivers, are risky both for the passengers and other road users. They pose high risk of casualties due to their vulnerable structural design and lack of fitness. They have very low stability and as such when they are hit by bus, they cannot remain stable. 

As a result, the accident rate with human haulers is also high. According to the data of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology's Accident Research Institute (ARI), a total of 16 people were killed and 73 others injured in 32 accidents in which human haulers were involved between 2017 and 2019. And accidents involving human haulers does not seem to stop. In 2022, a total 469 accidents took place in which human haulers were involved, says a report of the Passenger Welfare Association of Bangladesh. According to the ARI research, the tendency of overtaking each other among human hauler drivers is another cause of frequent accidents. 

Despite recurring accidents, the number of this accident-prone vehicle is increasing day by day in the city and elsewhere in the country. According to BRTA, there are around 20,000 registered modified utility vehicles in the country and 5,156 of them run on different routes in the capital city. Although, they are only allowed on feeder roads, they often run on the main thoroughfares and even on highways. One wonders on what grounds the authorities concerned have approved route permits for these risky vehicles. What is more shocking is that the Road Transport and Highways Division does not seem to have any plans to take these vehicles off the road now. Neither the BRTA has any guideline on regulating the movement of these vehicles. 

Another concern about these vehicles is their underage drivers and their assistants. Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1983 does not allow any person under 20 to drive a motor vehicle as a professional driver in any public place. But in most cases, teenage boys, who have not attained the legal age to be a driver,  are seen operating these human haulers. Some are even children. These young unlicensed drivers are particularly prone to high-risk behaviours including rash driving. Worse, they have no sense of traffic rules.  They are a potential source of danger for other road users including pedestrians. 

These risky human haulers should be off the city roads. But it must also be admitted that however accident-prone these vehicles may be, a large number of commuters find the service convenient and cheaper. In the absence of a proper public bus service, human haulers have become an integral part of urban traffic. Banning them would create a transport crisis in the city as well as unemployment for a large number of people. So, instead of banning them completely, the authorities should concentrate more on making travel on a human hauler safer for passengers. 

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