Reckless and desperate driving is responsible for around 86 percent road mishaps, shows a recent report which also reveals that over 7 lakh drivers do not have license.
Statistics show that 60 percent of accidents are happening due to reckless speed driving. The report also shows that 26.74 percent of accidents are due to excessive speed. About 4 percent of accidents are due to overtaking. The rest of the accidents are due to driver fatigue, pedestrians, poor road infrastructure, carrying excess freight and weather.
A large number of vehicles are running on the roads and highways without license, according to the report.
According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the number of registered vehicles in the country till October is 44,94,420. In contrast to these vehicles, the number of licensed drivers is 37,63,174. There is no valid driver for 7,31,246 vehicles.
Apart from this, many unregistered small and big vehicles are also running on the road. They also do not have licensed driver. Police and BRTA do not have accurate statistics of these vehicles. Due to these, the road accidents are increasing.
It is learned that road accidents are not decreasing due to incompetence, negligence, fatigue and reckless attitude of the drivers. In case of loss of life in the accident, case is filed under sections 96 and 105 of the Road Transport Act-2018. According to the concerned, it is not possible to control the reckless speed of drivers with weak laws.
According to police sources, the highest number of accidents occurred in 2019 in the last 5 years, followed by in 2020. In 2019, the police filed cases against 33,98,971 vehicles for violating rules.
Police, in the meantime, are gathering various information in their special software including the cause, type, place, weather, case of the road accident in order to study the natures of the road mishaps. This activity started from this year under its own supervision. As of last week, data on 460 incidents have been included in the software.
Statistics show that road infrastructure and traffic mis-management are also responsible for many accidents. Accidents are less in the city due to better traffic management. More accidents occur on long-distance roads. The rate of accidents on roads with road dividers and traffic control is 8.2 percent. On the other hand, the rate of accidents on roads without road dividers and traffic lights is 59.2 percent.
According to BRTA sources, the number of heavy vehicles till October is 2,64,344. In contrast, there are 1,5,746 drivers. As such, there is a crisis of 1,58,598 drivers for driving heavy vehicles.
As per rule, heavy vehicles must have two drivers to maintain working hours. But according to statistics, there is only one driver for each vehicle.
Transport experts said it is mandatory to have more than one driver for long-distance passengers and freight transports as per government guidelines. According to the labour law, a driver can drive for five hours continuously.
The experts said that in order to lure educated people in the driving profession, there is no alternative but to ensure various financial incentives from the employers including appointment letters, retirement benefits and festival bonuses. Although many of these issues are mentioned in the new road transport law, it is not possible to fully enforce the law. As a result, the number of drivers is not increasing and hence, it is difficult to say that the road crashes are coming under control.
In this regard, Mohammad Abdur Razzak, deputy director of BRTA, told the Bangladesh Post that a project has been officially taken up with BRTC to increase the number of drivers. If the project is implemented, there will be more than two lakh skilled drivers.
