Stop patronising reckless driving

Bus operators must be held accountable

We deeply mourn for the two college students whose lives were lost on Sunday for the lawlessness that plagues our roads. For the recklessness of two buses, which were racing with each other near the Airport Road flyover, Rajib, aged 18, and Mim, aged 17, both students of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College, had to pay the price. A further nine were also critically injured when the bus ploughed through the crowd. We hope they recover.

Our shipping minister's flippant remarks about the incident only enrage us further—how can he, as an elected official and a transport leader, suggest that too much was being made of the incident, drawing the example of the recent road crash in India which killed 33? Neither are his assurances of justice very assuring, judging from past examples. This was in no way an ordinary accident—it was outright manslaughter.

For years now, we have been trying to attract the attention of the authorities about the complete absurdity that is our roads. With almost certain impunity, bus operators have been free to do whatever they please—from flouting traffic rules and racing with each other in an unhealthy competition for picking up the maximum number of passengers, to hiring unskilled drivers and operating street-unsafe vehicles. This has been possible because of the patronage and backing of influential leaders who have a stake in the sector.

Only a few days back, we witnessed how the bus staff of another operator threw the unconscious body of a student into a canal to avoid the responsibility of taking him for medical care. And as the father of one of the victims in the latest incident, who was himself a bus driver, said, hiring unskilled drivers is the trend in the sector. With so many irregularities, and the leaders being blind to them, can we expect justice? We hope that the drivers whose negligence caused these deaths will be punished and that the victims and their families paid due reparation. Most of all, we hope that this serves as a wakeup call to transport leaders and the government that the sector needs urgent reform and that our roads and lives cannot continue to be at the mercy of these people who in effect are driving with a license to kill.

Courtesy: The Daily Star /Editorial /Jul 31, 2018