Road Safety Day will be observed across the country today with an aim to create mass awareness for cutting down road accidents. This year’s theme of the day is: ‘Jiboner Age Jibika Noy, Sarak Durghatana Ar Noy’ (Livelihood is not before life, no more road accident). The Road Transport and Bridges Ministry has drawn up various programmes including souvenir publication, discussion, procession and road safety campaign.
Marking the day, a colorful procession will be brought out from the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad at 7.30 am. The Fifth United Nations Global Road Safety Week takes place from the 6th to the 12th of May 2019.= Earlier in February, the United Nations launched the Road Safety Strategy, which aims to meet the road safety targets in the Sustainable Development Goals. The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011-2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety, holding goals to reduce injuries and fatalities cause by road traffic at local, national and international levels.
Nirapad Sarak Chai (Nischa) Founder and Chairman Ilias Kanchan told Bangladesh post, “We have some demands which we will inform the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a programme which is scheduled to be held at Manik Miah Avenue on today. Pm is expected to attend the programme.”
“We have been working for road safety. I think we all including drivers and passengers should be more careful to reduce accident,” he also said. Nirapad Sarak Chai sources said 4,439 people were killed in 3,103 road crashes last year. 24-hours CCTV monitoring on the roads, introducing trauma centers alongside highways, preventing drug-driving, control on motor-bike and three wheelers are the long awaited demands of the experts.
A total of 24, 954 people - 85 per cent male and 15 per cent female - were killed in road accidents in 2016, while the number was 21,316 in 2012, the association revealed citing a WHO report, drawing attention to the rise in numbers of road a crashes during the period under review.
The fifth UN Global Road Safety Week-2019 will be observed across the country till May 12, with “Leadership for Road Safety” as the central theme. Jatri Kalyan Samity’s Secretary General Mozammel Haque Chowdhury told Bangladesh post that around 1.2 million people die and 20-50 million more became injured in road accidents across the world every year.
Casualties in the lower and middle-income countries are higher (21.5 and 19.5 in every 1 lakh respectively) than the developed countries (10.3 in every 1 lakh), he said. Police said 2,635 people were killed in 2,609 road crashes last year. It would be very difficult to achieve the SDG target if the situation continues.
According to the statics of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, 7,221 people were killed in 5,514 road crashes. At least 2,123 people were killed and 5,558 injured in 1,871 road accidents in last four months across the country. A total of 1979 people were killed and 4727 were injured in 1765 accidents in first four months of last year, it said adding that the number of accidents, death and injured saw 1.06, 1.44 and 8.31 percent rise respectively compared to the same period of the previous year.
