In early 80s in our high school days, one of the most common essays was ‘a journey by train’ where we used to start the introduction by this way: ‘Journey is always fascinating. It charms our mind and makes us happy.
Journey is a relief in our monotonous everyday life. After a journey we feel relaxed and fresh.
It also fills our heart with peace. During the last winter vacation, I got an opportunity to make a journey by train with my family’ and it goes on. Things to be praised and noticed here, we were taught that a journey charms our mind, makes us happy and gives relief to our monotonous life. Whereas, nowadays in Bangladesh the scenario is different in two ways.
Number one, train journey has lost its charm because of lack of proper service, maintenance and so on over the last two to three decades (though the situation is slowly improving last couple of years but yet it has to go a long way to accomplish the goal) and as a result, bus service has taken over that place. Hundreds of bus services have been plying across the country but one can hardly get any satisfactory service except for a very few. Well, exception can never be example. The people of Bangladesh are painstaking. They wouldn’t mind for the lack of service but it hugely matters when using the bus service costs lives. And this is because of the regular road accident which is a common scenario of the country and these accidents mainly take place because of the drivers’ reckless driving, speeding and dangerous over taking.
Now, the 2nd scenario is, travelling in our country is no more mind soothing; rather a dreadful thing, life risking thing. Have a look at this horrific data:
According to a recent survey published in a daily newspaper in January 2017, a total of 3,412 people were killed and 8,572 others injured in 2,998 road accidents in 2016. So, on an average, 9 people died everyday on the road by road accident in 2016.
The country witnessed a 35% decrease in road accidents while around 45% fall in casualties in 2016 compared to the previous year, according to a report of the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways (NCPSRR). Of the casualties, 470 were women and 453 were children.
On the other hand, 4,592 road accidents killed at least 6,823 people, including 781 women and 762 children, and wounded 14,026 others in 2015. So, more than 18 people got killed by road accident daily in 2015.
The figures showed that the road accidents were decreased by 35% while deaths by 50% and injuries by 39% in the just-concluded year than 2015.
The national committee mentioned seven vital reasons for accidents.
They include lack of implementation of law to stop plying unfit vehicles, employing unskilled drivers without having any legal licence, reckless driving, overloading and overtaking tendency of drivers violating laws, not following traffic rules and regulations, long-time driving without any interval and a number of risky turning points on several roads and highways and dilapidated roads.
The newspaper said that this report was prepared based on reports published in 20 national newspapers, 10 regional newspapers and eight online news portals and news agencies.
I don’t know whether this kind of mishap takes place in anywhere in any other countries on a regular basis. Let’s have a rough idea about these 3,412 people who got killed by road accident in 2016. Most of them were killed in bus accident from which we can imagine most of them couldn’t afford their own vehicle.
That means, they were from low to mid income bracket group. And in Bangladesh, most of the family consists of five to six members where usually one member is the earning member who runs the family. Now, out of this 3,412 people, if there was only 10% lone earning member got killed by road accidents , that makes 341 people which means 341 families overnight had fallen flat plunging in an utterly helpless conditions. They didn’t know how to survive, how to earn their bread and butter, let alone spending money for other purposes. Well, the percentage mentioned here is likely to be high as you can easily imagine but unfortunately we could never know and still we can never know how many lone earning members from humble families are dying on the roads everyday leaving their respective families in a total helpless condition.
According to a piece of news published on 28th February in a Bengali newspaper, 184 people got killed by road accident over the last 18 days. So, the ratio still remains same in 2017; 10 people on an average are getting killed by road accidents mainly because of reckless driving, speeding and dangerous over taking. I am writing this article on the 28th February, 2017 and today the entire country is facing transport shut down because of the indefinite strike called by the transport workers. Do you know the reason? You won’t believe, I bet. One driver who was found guilty has recently been awarded with life term imprisonment by the court. This driver named Jamir Hossain of Chuadanga has been sentenced to life for his dangerous driving which caused death of some renowned persons of the country in 2011. One rogue driver got punished, so the transport workers are having the entire country’s people (160 million) stranded by calling indefinite transport strike! What is the solution to this audacity? Well, I think, only one thing can solve this problem and that is, to go back to ‘journey by train’ era; I mean, by promoting train service in all respect.
We have now 339 trains including all categories. If we can import 200 more trains which will mainly be plying through different districts, that can give big relief to passengers and restore the situation from this audacity. Hope, Honourbale Prime Minister and Rail Minister will give it a thought and do what is needed for the safe commuting as well as saving lives. Our boyhood essay on journey by train used to conclude in this way: ‘Thus the train journey came to an end.
Though I made the journey last year, the memory of it is ever fresh in my mind.’ We like to have all our journeys memorable in positive ways!
The writer is a Communication Trainer & Journalist. He may be reached at:
ziahasan69@gmail.com
