Reckless drivers continue to kill

The death of two budding young students apparently caused by reckless driving within a span of only eight hours, around Shahbagh area, cries out for the re-structuring of the public transportation system and strict punishment of the parties at fault, under law. We offer our deepest condolences to the families of Sabiha Akhter Sonali, 14, and Khadija Sultana Mitu, 12, for the unrecoverable losses.  

We feel that such "accidents" occur in a sheer state of lawlessness where buses, many of them unfit to operate, driven by drivers, often without valid licenses, can run someone over and not bother to stop and take responsibility, as was the case in the death of Sonali who wanted to become a doctor. 

Policymakers must stop thinking of road safety as a mere transport issue and recognise it as a public health and sustainable development problem as poor families are more likely than those better off to lose the head of household and suffer direct and indirect expenses, such as medical costs, insurance loss, property damage and family income losses. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), road traffic injuries cause a loss of about 2 percent of GDP in Bangladesh. 

Umpteen reports and editorials have been written on road accidents in Bangladesh. It is high time we adopted an internationally accepted approach to road safety, taking into consideration vehicles, roads and road users to prevent crashes and strengthening the legal system to deal with the responsible parties which must include owners as well as drivers.