Who Rules Our Roads?

2000, 1958, 1535, 1396 – these are the numbers of people killed in the lawless roads and highways of Bangladesh over the last four years. These statistics were disclosed by the Bangladesh police; the unofficial records suggest that the actual death toll is no less than 4000 on average every year. A major reason for this staggering number of deaths is the impunity with which transport companies run unfit, illegally modified vehicles by untrained drivers at devastating high-speeds. 

The verdicts on February 22 and February 28, convicting two drivers – one for deliberately killing a woman by his truck and another for the crash that killed renowned filmmaker Tareque Masud and Mishuk Munier – were momentous, for they challenged the culture of impunity protecting transport workers. However, the transport sector union's subsequent reaction to it – paralysing the whole country for two days by blocking the roads and highways – laid bare, once again, the power and sense of entitlement enjoyed by the transport owners and workers.

According to experts, Bangladesh's road transport sector is one of the most unregulated service sectors in the country. The road transport system, regulated by the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1983, which is 34 years old and considered outdated, and the Association of Bus Owners and Federation of Road Transport Workers are the two main bodies that actually control the entire road transport system of the country. These unions, backed by influential political leaders, allegedly pressurise regulatory bodies like Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) to accept their illegitimate demands. 

It has been reported in the daily Prothom Alo that due to the pressure of these unions, BRTA issued 190,000 professional driving licenses without any driving test (Prothom Alo, July 30, 2015). The BRTA also could not ban and withdraw illegal and dilapidated vehicles such as Nasiman, Kariman and Votvoti from the highways. 

Ilias Kanchan, Chairman, Nirapad Sharak Chai (We Demand Safe Roads), a non-profit organisation campaigning for road safety for decades, argues that the trade union organisations of Bangladesh's road transport sector do not abide by any rules and regulations. “Even the government has been unable to develop any system to monitor their activities. As a result, owners of buses and trucks recruit drivers and other workers without following any procedure. They often abuse their political power to run unfit vehicles; in a word, an absolute absence of management is apparent in the road transport sector,” he says. 

Ilias claims that even the rights of the transport workers are being violated in this situation: “Most of the drivers and their helpers work for around 12-15 hours a day. There is no provision for physical fitness check-ups for the drivers. Their payment is also irregular as there is no regulation to determine the wages of the transport workers.”

A few of the established bus companies have formulated their own regulations. “However, in the absence of any substantial supervision by the government, most of the smaller companies run their vehicles according to their will to maximise their profit at any cost,” adds Ilias. 

The death toll from accidents reaches the peak during the Eid holidays when millions of people leave the capital to spend their holidays with family members. To benefit from the holiday rush, all the bus owners ply every kind of vehicle, fit or unfit, without any trained driver, in the highways, catering to the numerous travellers. During the last vacation of Eid-ul-Adha, 265 people were killed in 210 road accidents within just six days. According to a study titled “Road Safety: Realities and Challenges” published by Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), 49 percent of these accidents occurred due to the driver's fault and around 70 percent of all the road accidents involved buses and trucks.

Khandaker Rafiqul Hossain, President, Association of Bus Companies, blames the severe traffic jams for overworking drivers and workers. He argues, “Due to traffic congestion, wrecked roads and long queues for ferry crossings, most of our buses take more than eight hours to reach the destination. So, how can we maintain the limit of eight working hours for our drivers?”

“Also, we have the burden of paying the loans with which we buy our buses on one hand, and on the other, we have to pay illegal tolls to various sources to run our vehicles. So, you cannot just blame the bus owners and the workers if they want to earn more. Most of us can just make ends meet after paying a huge amount of toll and loan instalment,” he adds.

The government officials also admitted the intensity of the crisis and the government's inability to solve it. MAN Siddique, Secretary, Road Transport and Highways Division, Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, says, “I agree that there is a severe lack of management in the transport sector and one of the reasons behind it, I think, is lack of coordination among different government agencies. We can formulate regulations to control the activities of the transport companies; however, we have to depend on the law enforcement agencies to implement those laws. Again, when we enforce the laws, the transport owners and workers call strikes and create such a crisis that the government has to sit with the owners. This is actually a vicious cycle and we have to break it with a big push.”  

The government has almost finalised the new law which will replace the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1983, which he believes, we will be able to solve this disruptive situation. 

While trade unions are formed to ensure the rights of the workers, abuse of political power by the leaders and the government's inability to work with them in a constructive manner has turned the trade unions of Bangladesh's transport workers into apologists for killers and miscreants. With several transport company owners and union leaders in the cabinet, it might be a challenge for the government to formulate a strong legal framework to regulate the transport companies and ensure the rights of their workers. 

As we have already witnessed in the past, Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan, also the Executive President of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers' Federation, recommended the issuance of driving licence without any driving test and demanded a law which would give indemnity to drivers after road crash (The Daily Star, October 25, 2011). It has also been reported that the transport workers sat with Shahjahan and State Minister for Rural Development and Co-operatives Mashiur Rahman Ranga, who is also the President of Bangladesh Road Transport Owners' Association, before declaring the strike (The Daily Star, March 1, 2017). 

To regulate the transport sector, it is necessary to depoliticise the industry workers and owners so that the new law can be formulated and enforced properly. There is no doubt that if the legal framework is not developed and its enforcement is not ensured as soon as possible, the death toll in the roads will continue to increase and the country's entire road transportation system will remain at the mercy of the big transport companies.