Sayeed Muhammad: Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said road accidents the country claims maximum lives compared to the deaths caused by cancer or kidney diseases.
The minister was talking to reporters after inaugurating a new station of Fire Service and Civil Defence in Burichang upazila of Comilla yesterday, reports The Daily Star.
“Approximately 6,000 minor to major accidents take place in Bangladesh every year, leaving 3,000-5,000 people dead. Different measures including widening of roads will be taken from the Roads and Highways Department in a bid to reduce the number of such accidents,” he said.
Majority of the vehicles plying in Dhaka city are unfit and most of the drivers of these unfit vehicles do not have licenses, he further said.
Moreover, pedestrians, passengers and drivers do not abide by traffic laws, he added.
Replying to a query on the punishment of the attackers of journalists, he said law enforcers have been instructed to bring the perpetrators to book after scrutinising video footages of the attacks.
Former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru, also the lawmaker from Burichang of Comilla, among others, was present on the occasion.
Major cities in Bangladesh, including Dhaka, came to a standstill after students across the country launched movement protesting deaths of two students in the Airport Road bus crash on July 29. Their protests were bolstered through a nine-point demand including road safety and adopting a new law containing tougher punishment for road crash offenders.
On August 6, a draft law approved by the cabinet proposes a maximum punishment of five years’ imprisonment for causing death to a person by reckless driving, drawing strong criticism from road safety campaigners who termed the sentence insufficient to end anarchy on roads.
However, many said the draft overlooked various key aspects of road safety including design of roads, supervision of vehicular fitness, training and counselling of transport workers including drivers.
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