Driving on wrong side rampant

It was December 25 morning Nazu Akther, 30, a garment worker, was waiting to cross the busy Mailer Matha road in Saltgola area of Chittagong city to get on a bus to go to her workplace.

Seeing the road quite free, she started crossing it keeping her eyes on the right side in case vehicles come along.

But she was not ready for the three-wheeler coming from the opposite direction. The vehicle knocked her down resulting in a lifelong disability.

She got her left leg run over by a trailer coming from the right side and within a week, the leg had to be severed while she was undergoing treatment at a hospital.

The incident which occurred over two months ago left Nazu, a resident of Saltgola area, with no work. The mother of three now can barely make ends meet with her day-labourer husband.

On June 10, 2015, another wrong-side driving accident killed a garment worker and injured two others in the area.

The accident occurred when a covered van hit a three-wheeler which was plying the wrong side of the road. The victims were passengers of the three-wheeler.

Apart form these two, minor incidents occur every day as nearly a hundred three-wheelers ply the wrong direction from Saltgola to EPZ road in the area from 6:00am to 8:00am.

During these two hours, thousands of garment workers head out to their workplace in Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) and Karnaphuli Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) by bus and other vehicles.

As the workers wait across the right side of the road for vehicles to get on, the road gets crowded creating a gridlock for several hours. As a result, medium-sized vehicles like tempos choose to ply the wrong side of the road to ferry passengers mainly from Saltgola to EPZ intersection.

The Daily Star on June 20, 2015 published a report about the rampant wrong-side driving in the area. No actions have been taken against the violators of rules yet.

Visiting the area from 6:00am to 8:00am recently, this correspondent witnessed several three-wheelers and fast-moving vehicles like bus and trailer moving freely on the wrong side.

Many garment workers were also seen crossing the road with vehicles moving fast on both sides of the road.

Alamgir, a resident of Agrabad area and worker of a garment factory, said they have to be very cautious while crossing the road as oftentimes three-wheelers, running on the wrong side of the road may hit them.

“Small accidents occur daily on the road. These violations are only noticed when someone loses his or her life or limb,” said Alamgir.

Talking to several drivers, it was found that the three-wheelers usually run on Barik Building-Chawkbazar route. As the number of passengers is high in the morning in EPZ area, the three-wheelers flood the area. They said police do not harass them for driving on the wrong side of the road.

Assistant Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) (port) Mosharraf Hossain said traffic police are deployed in the city from 7:00am.  But they were not aware of the rules violations. Now that they are informed they will take action against vehicles that ply on the wrong side of the road.

Biplab Kumar Paul, Traffic Inspector (EPZ zone) of Chittagong Metropolitan area, said from March 1, he has impounded around 50 vehicles mostly three-wheelers, in this area for running on the wrong side of the road.

It is not possible for police alone to control the vehicles in the morning as thousands of garment workers and hundreds of vehicles pass through the road during that time, he said.

“Along with legal actions, special programmes should be taken to make drivers aware of the consequences of driving in the wrong direction”, said Biplab.

He, however, said there is no data on accidents that took place in the area.