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March 24, 2023
DHAKA “Death is an accident only when it occurs in spite of all logical, scientific and experimental steps taken to prevent it. But if the possibility of its occurrence exists at every stage of the system’s operation and no steps are taken to prevent it, despite official conclusions, public outcry and media reports over the years, then this is no longer an “accident”, but a “murder”. by negligence committed by the authorities, whose legal duty is to prevent it. Responsible persons must be held liable for gross negligence and held liable accordingly. This would happen if we had the rule of law, which would operate independently of power.
The bus, which killed 19 people and injured at least 25 on March 19, killed three more and injured many more just four months ago in November, causing its registration and driver’s license to be suspended. The bus should have been pulled off the road months ago and in police custody, like all vehicles involved in fatal crashes. But the bus was not only returned to the owner, but also allowed to operate it on a permanent basis.
According to survivors, the bus was traveling at top speed from the start, and passengers could be heard yelling at the driver to slow down. Instead, the driver accelerated even more when he entered the expressway because his higher wages depended on the number of trips he could make. Who cares about the lives of passengers? A bribe will solve everything.
Every time a tragedy occurs on our roads and highways, we report that most of the buses do not have the necessary documents for operation, and most importantly, there is no “validity certificate” confirming their suitability for operation. We also inform you that there are not enough personnel and equipment issuing fitness certificates to meet the demand. Currently, there is only one Technical Inspection Center (TIC) in the whole country, which inspects about 100 buses and trucks daily out of 229,369 buses, trucks and minibuses. Why their capacity is not increased and more such centers are not created throughout the country is a question to which we have not received an answer. It is not unreasonable to conclude that the buses plying our roads are most likely unsuitable for carrying passengers and therefore are potential “killing machines”. But, of course, bribes can solve everything.
Accident or murder?
We have also reported over the past decade, if not more, that most bus drivers are not licensed. Many of them wear fake ones because they are faster and easier, not to mention cheaper than real ones. Again, why this situation is not being addressed with all the digitalization going on is a question that will never be answered. Maybe we are forgetting the magic of bribery.
Most drivers have only basic driving knowledge and may not know or be trained in special conditions such as driving in the rain when the roads become slippery and tire grip is much weaker. Driving in tropical Bangladesh without special training requires an “accident”.
Above all laws, regulations, practices, government directives – above everything – stands the “bribery law.” It is much more efficient, faster and more accountable than any law in our code of laws.
We import chassis for our buses. The rest is built here – the body, the seats and all the safety measures. This is a technical challenge, given that a safe balance must be found between the strength of the material used, the weight it can support, the impact on the frame when cornering, especially when the bus is full, the speed to weight ratio. . while driving, tire pressure during heavy braking with a full load of passengers, seated or standing passengers, etc. These are all vital elements in preventing an accident. What compliance standards must be observed when registering a bus? Are those who monitor compliance adequately trained?
There is nothing that could be called a “health check” for bus drivers, especially their eyesight and whether they need glasses. This is especially true for those who drive at night. Random studies have shown that about 60-70 percent of drivers need glasses and suffer from night blindness.
Then there is the question of working time. Bus drivers have virtually no mandatory rest time. Often they fall asleep at the wheel, as owners prefer to pay “overtime” rather than hire an extra driver that could save a life. We had cases when the accident occurred due to the fact that instead of the driver the vehicle was driven by a conductor.
Name the possible violations that may occur in any road transport system, and we will do it. And the main reason is the magic of bribes.
Above all laws, regulations, practices, government directives – above everything – stands the “bribery law.” It is much more efficient, faster and more accountable than any law in our code of laws. A Daily Star investigation revealed that a mobile network is in operation that charges buses and trucks a monthly “fee” proportional to their size and the number of trips they make. There is something like a “mobile application” that has the numbers of all the buses and trucks that are subject to these “duties”. The payment is noted in the application and can be checked by authorized traffic police inspectors in any part of the city. Thus, any defaulter is immediately identified and punished. The collection is carried out digitally and distributed according to the hierarchy of the institution.
Widespread bribery is destroying the entire legal edifice and is the main reason why, after decades of exposure by government investigations and media reports, nothing has changed. Justification is impregnable. The more bus owners break the law, the more law enforcement responsibility falls on them and the greater the need for bribes. As many owners told the media, albeit anonymously for fear of repercussions: “We still have to pay bribes, whether we have all the documents or not. So why get papers, for which, again, you have to pay bribes, in addition to state duties, which are constantly growing. This network of bribery is known to all. The dynamics of power is such that the government prefers to look the other way.
The brute fact that strikes us is that when we, the passengers, board the bus, we have no guarantees about what should be our basic right – the right to travel safely. We don’t know if the bus we’re on is registered or if it runs illegally. We don’t know if the bus is suitable for the road. (In the accident that killed 19 people, the media reported that the driver was told there was a problem with the brake and that it might fail. He decided to fix it upon his return to Dhaka.) We do not know if the bus driver has a valid certificate. We do not know anything about his mental state, health, eyesight and whether he was drunk, which is extremely important when driving a car at night. We don’t really know anything, and we also can’t ask for fear of being rejected because we seem too curious.
All this is happening and has been happening for many years, because those who rule us (meaning all governments) do not think about our right to life.
Between 2018 and 2022, 39,522 people died and 58,791 people were injured in 28,299 traffic accidents, according to Jatri Kalyan Samity (BJKS), a Bangladeshi private organization set up to protect the rights of passengers. The figures were compiled from media reports. Police say 20,413 people died in 21,625 crashes during the same period, based on cases filed with them. Not all road traffic victims go to the police for various reasons; hence their number is less.
If we take the BJKS figures, we get an annual figure of about 8000 deaths (according to the police it would be 4000) due to traffic accidents. The number of civilian deaths in the first year of the Russian-Ukrainian war has been confirmed to be at least 8,000, according to the United Nations Office for Human Rights (OHCHR). It’s just that death on the roads of a peaceful country becomes comparable to a country subjected to regular bombardments by a foreign aggressor. What an irony. If we take the data of the police, then the number of deaths is two times less. Even then, the irony remains just as striking.
Two things need to change: respect for human lives and our government’s accountability system. We know that many empty words will have to be paid for the first, and even more for the second. Thus, we will continue to live in our imaginary world, and Bangladeshis will die – not in a foreign land and not because of any aggression, but on our roads.
Mahfouz Anam is the editor and publisher of The Daily Star.
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