Brothers stare at a bleak future

It was like they were orphaned once again.

Rajib, who had been both elder brother and guardian to 14-year-old Abdullah Hridoy and 15-year-old Mehedi Hasan Bappi after their father died in 2007, breathed his last early yesterday.

They had lost their mother when Rajib was only eight years old.

He died due to brain haemorrhage, said Pradip Biswas, who conducted the autopsy on the body. His brain haemorrhaged after he suffered a head injury in the April 3 road accident in which his right hand too got stuck between to speeding buses in the capital's Bangla Motor and was severed from the elbow down.

He had cracks in the skull, Pradip added.

A seven-member board at Dhaka Medical College Hospital had tried to ensure the best treatment for Rajib, who was on life support since April 10, said its chief Prof MS Zaman Shaheen, head of the hospital's orthopedic department.

While announcing the bad news, he said Rajib's death had brought forth the issues that are responsible for road accidents and these must be paid   heed to.

“The responsibility to prevent such deaths goes to me, you, the society and, above all, the state,” he told The Daily Star.

Rajib's death raised a question of whether the very attitude of the drivers would change the attitude which was responsible for the accident.

Kazi Md Shifun Newaz, assistant professor of the Accident Research Institute (ARI) at Buet, ruled out any such possibility. 

“You have to change the system which is responsible for the unhealthy competition [of picking more passengers and making more trips],” he said, adding that reckless driving was just a symptom of the problem but not the root cause.

Most of the drivers in the city are paid by bus owners based on how many trips they make. Bus owners often rent out their vehicles to drivers instead of hiring them on a monthly salary, Shifun said.

Drivers also have to give huge amounts of money to a vested quarter in cases of extortion, and thus, indulge in reckless driving to maximise profits by making as many trips as possible.

Khandaker Enayetullah, general secretary of Dhaka Road Transport Owners' Association (DRTOA), at a programme last week, said the trend of renting out buses to drivers was on the rise, a reason for such unhealthy competition.

Karam Ali, general secretary of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers' Union, said drivers engage in the competition to earn more. Accidents will come down if the renting of vehicles is stopped, he added.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity (BJKS), a platform for passengers, demanded proper compensation and justice to the family of Rajib as soon as possible.

In a statement, its secretary General, Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, called for discipline in the transport sector to stop incidents like that of Rajib's.

“Now with Rajib gone, Hridoy and Mehedi, who spent their childhood mostly without parents, face an uncertain future,” their uncle Jahidul Islam said while talking to The Daily Star immediately after Rajib's death.

 “I cannot find the courage to look at them [Rajib's brothers] …. Everything went in vain. We didn't get him back after days of sleepless yet hopeful nights,” Jahidul said, adding that the family demands exemplary punishment of the bus drivers.

Rajib's body was taken at 1:30pm for his first janaza which was held in High Court area around 2:00pm yesterday. He would be buried next to his mother's grave, after the second janaza, which would be held in his maternal village in Bauphal of Patuakhali at 9:00am today.