Name: Cinderella Akbar Mayaboti
From: Dhaka, Dhaka
Votes: 0
Drive Responsibly
Bangladesh being the 10th most densely populated country in the world accounted for 5,227 casualties in road traffic accidents throughout 2019. And in 2018, 4,439 people were killed as a result of Road Traffic Accident (RTA), the year was marked by a movement of students throughout the country for ensuring justice being served as two high school students got hit by a bus and died on spot. I was a part of this movement and sadly enough the movement has not changed anything, rather the death toll increased the following year by 788 casualties. (Source: Anadolu Agency)
A survey conducted by BRAC Road Safety Program among 1200 transport workers in Dhaka city showed that 76% of the workers need glasses and medications and 12.6% needs an optical surgery. Recently, transport services like Uber became prevalent in Dhaka city, these drivers are often on the phone talking to their customers for directions, such companies should consider giving proper training and gadgets to the drivers for navigation, to avoid having road accidents.
Most drivers learn enough to only pass the test and soon after getting their learners permit they become negligent towards safety rules and regulations. The monitoring system and penalties for the irresponsible drivers are not enough, in order to ensure safer roads, sensitizing the drivers about the consequences of their unmindful actions is important, which can be attained through revising the years old syllabus, regular training, shorter validity of driver’s license and car inspection, training and test must be made mandatory upon renewal of the driver’s license.
Back in 2017 my friends and I were driving back home from a road trip, it was after sundown and a heavy rain. The highway was quite empty with only one car in front of us, my friend was driving at the maximum speed limit as it was already late, suddenly the car in front of us made a hard brake to drop a passenger without triggering any indicator and our car directly hit the corner of the car; moreover, a pick-up van from the opposite direction rushed by our side. Two things went wrong during this accident, the car in front of us did not give any indicator of going out of lane and stopping to drop passengers and the pick-up van was on the wrong side of the road. The wet road was risky as well as it increased the braking time significantly, but there is only little we can do about that. Fortunately, we were very lucky and there were no major casualties.
While driving, one has to be responsible not just for themselves but also for others on the road, which includes people in their passenger seat, on other vehicles and pedestrians. I try to maintain a safe distance, honk only when necessary, wear seatbelts and use indicators while driving, furthermore, when using Uber, I ensure the driver is not talking on phone or smoking and following traffic rules; after all it is better to be safe than sorry.
