When roads turn into 'highway of death', which way do we go?

Every day we leave the house, make our way to go about our run-on-the-mill days, but we do so with a flight risk knowing we may never reach back home safely. 

As parents, we tend to get extra wary to commute with our children for fear of meeting with an unfortunate accident on the road. Even on a family trip somewhere, a merry ride may turn into a tragedy. 

The country's roads are full of uncertainties, so much so that we can never predict where they would lead when we start our journey. 

Over the last ten days, at least 50 people died in road accidents across Bangladesh, and that's just the number of deaths that were later turned into news articles. 

Speeding and lack of monitoring have been underlined key reasons behind the alarming rate of road accidents, as per experts.

Speaking to The Business Standard,  Kazi Md Shifun Newaz, professor of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology's (Buet) Accident Research Institute (ARI), said, "Speeding, rush to finish the ongoing trip to start the next one sooner and lack of monitoring are the key reasons behind increasing road accidents on the highway.

He blamed three-wheelers for the increasing number of accidents on the highway as slow-moving vehicles often clash with high-speed buses.

"We need to bring back the strict monitoring that stopped three-wheelers from getting onto the highway," he recommended. 

The Buet professor believes it is necessary to intervene at the manufacturing stage of these three-wheelers rather than trying to stop them from getting to the highway. 

"Drivers do not follow the speed limits written on the road. We need strong monitoring so that the speed limits are maintained by all," he added. 

More deaths are being reported, with the fire service continuing its rescue operations from "Bashar Smriti," the bus that plunged into a pond in Jhalokati with more than 40 passengers while going to Barisal from Pirojpur. 

One of the passengers, 45-year-old Piyara Begum was taking her six-year-old daughter Sumaiya to a doctor in Barisal when the bus fell into the Jhalokati pond. 

"I managed to escape the drowned bus with my daughter through one of its windows. But I suddenly realised she was not breathing anymore," Piyara told reporters after the accident. 

Another passenger, Md Rasel Molla, 35, was taking his 75-year-old father to a doctor in Barishal. His elder brother, Md Shahid, 40, was also with them. 

He lost his father in the accident within a few minutes, and his brother went missing. 

But this is only the latest one on the list. 

On July 16, Parvin Sultana, a lawyer, was killed when a bus hit the motorcycle she was on at Hanif Flyover in the capital's Jatrabari.

On July 15, a truck entered the factory after losing control at Gazipur's Konabari, killing two women. Apparently, the truck driver's assistant was learning to drive when this happened.

Just a day ago, another man riding a motorcycle was killed by bus in Kallyanpur, Dhaka. Two buses were allegedly doing a race when one of them hit the bike he was on.

On July 13, another bus killed Zahid Hasan, a 24-year-old student in Rampura. While feeling the scene after hitting him in a hurry, the bus ran over 13-year-old Mehedi Hasan Parvez.

Apart from these four from 13-16 July and the Jhalokati road accident, there have been at least 15 more road accidents in the last ten days.After the Jhalokati accident, one of the injured passengers told the media the driver was talking over the phone right before losing control of the bus. Another passenger said the bus was overcrowded and speeding. 

According to the Road Safety Foundation, faulty vehicles, speeding and unskilled, unfit drivers are among the top ten reasons behind frequent road accidents in Bangladesh.

Unfixed working hours for professional drivers, operation of slow-moving vehicles on highways, reckless bike driving by youths, poor traffic management and extortion in the transport sector are some other reasons.

According to Jatri Kalyan Samity, as many as 299 people were killed and 544 others injured in 277 road accidents across the country in the 15 days during Eid-ul-Azha.

Of the accidents, 36.46% occurred on national highways, 29.24% on regional roads and 29.60% on other roads, with 1.8% of those in the capital.

In June alone, as many as 516 people died, and 812 were injured in 559 road accidents throughout Bangladesh, according to the Road Safety Foundation (RSF).

According to RSF's observation and analysis, 268 (47.94%), the highest among the total accidents, occurred due to losing control over the wheel, 109 (19.49%) due to collision, 97 accidents (17.35%) happened due to pedestrians being run over, 72 incidents (12.88%) involved hitting the rear side of vehicles, and 13 (2.32%) occurred due to other reasons.