Desk Report: Unfit vehicles, unlicensed drivers and faulty roads are the main causes behind the road fatalities in the capital and elsewhere in the country, experts say, reports Daily Sun.
They say underage drivers of public transport, mostly human haulers, are also posing a major threat to commuters’ safety. Most of the public transports plying the city streets are unfit and the people travelling by these vehicles run the risk of serious injury and death.
The experts say keeping the unfit vehicles off the street is crucial to making the city’s roads safer for commuters and pedestrians.
Sources said many unfit vehicles have fitness certificates while many others do not have any documents at all or their fitness certificates have expired long ago.
According to them, transport operators are even assembling buses on small truck chassis and operating them as minibus in the city.
Transport expert Dr M Salehuddin Ahmed, a former executive director of Dhaka Transport Coordination Board (DTCB), told the daily sun that
assembling a bus on a truck chassis makes the vehicle more vulnerable to accidents.
He said the chassis is the backbone of a vehicle that determines the load-bearing capacity.
“When anyone puts a heavy bus structure on a small truck chassis it loses the grips and tractions required for safe plying on the road,” he said.
According to him, such a vehicle may seem normal in open eyes but technical faults remain in it.
Although road accidents are very common due to unfit vehicles and unlicensed drivers, the authorities are apparently indifferent to the problem.
“Around 40 per cent of the 35 lakh (3.5 million) registered vehicles are unfit in the city,” said Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, Secretary General of Bangladesh Passenger Welfare Association.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader told parliament on July 10 that as per the statistics as of June 30, 2018, there are around 34.98 lakh registered vehicles and of that 22.6 lakh are motorcycles.
“Against those vehicles, only 18.69 lakh drivers have valid licences,” he said.
The minister said as there has been a lack of driving schools and instructors, the country does not have the required number of skilled drivers.
Transport expert Dr M Salehuddin Ahmed said the authorities need to improve the fitness certificate awarding procedures so that any unfit vehicle cannot get through the system.
“Road fatalities can’t be reduced if the fitness and skills of vehicles and drivers are not ensured,” he said.
A vehicle has to pass some 30 types of technical and physical tests for fitness certification, but it is alleged that in most cases, transport owners manage to get certificates by bribing BRTA officials. If a vehicle has its original design, proper functioning of brakes and gears, proper lights and no emission of black smoke it is fit for fitness certification.