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Road transport law needs to be implemented properly

5 || risingbd.com

Published: 10:27, 12 August 2018   Update: 15:18, 26 July 2020
Road transport law needs to be implemented properly

Students stage strong movement demanding road safety after two students of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment School and College were killed in a road accident on Airport Road in the capital on July 29. The cabinet has approved in principle the draft of Road Transport Act-2018 in the face of massive protests across the country. Now this act will be placed before a parliament session and it will turn into a law if it is passed unanimously. But the observing quarters have expressed their doubts about whether the law will be implemented or not.

It is needless to say that a very chaotic condition is prevailing in the road transport sector of Bangladesh. A competition is often seen to break the traffic rules here in Bangladesh. Bangladesh stands at 13th position in the world and seventh in the South Asia in terms of road accidents. Every day we hear and see reports of road crashes around the world with the help of media. People had been demanding safe roads for long days but the demand got a momentum after deaths of two college students in Dhaka. Adolescent students took to the streets demanding safe roads.

As per the draft law approved by the cabinet, it proposes a maximum punishment of five years' imprisonment with no provision for bail, or fine, or both for causing death to a person by reckless driving. The draft also proposed increasing the punishment for driving unregistered and unfit vehicles and for driving without licence and route permit. It also suggested that the number of vehicles be regulated in certain areas and funds be set up for treatment of the injured in road accidents and compensation for the victims' families. As per the draft law, drivers must have education not below eighth grade, and nobody will be allowed to drive vehicles without licence. A person must be at least 18 to get a driving licence and 21 to get a professional licence. It will be mandatory for anyone to have a licence to be a conductor of a vehicle. As seen in the developed countries, the draft has a provision of keeping 12 points for a driver. And the driver will lose points for committing offences. When the points come down to zero, the driver's licence will be cancelled. According to the draft, a driver will lose points for nine types of offenses, including drunk driving, illegal overtaking, reckless and dangerous driving, and violation of traffic signals and speed limits. No vehicle owner can hire a driver without driving licence, and no one is allowed to drive public service vehicles without permission from the authorities concerned.

Meanwhile, the draft law draws strong criticism from road safety campaigners who termed the sentence insufficient to end anarchy on roads. Many observing quarters think the punishment for rash driving proposed in the draft law did not reflect the demand of people. Earlier, the maximum punishment for causing death by reckless and negligent driving was a jail term of seven years. But in the face of truckers' protests in 1985, the term of imprisonment was reduced to three years by amending the Penal Code. Anguished over growing incidents of reckless driving, road safety campaigners have long been demanding that the government increase the punishment to at least 10 years for causing death to a person by rash driving. There was an expectation that the proposed road transport act would be tougher than the existing one. Experts think it is necessary to ensure exemplary punishment for those responsible for road crashes, but the draft of the proposed road transport act did not reflect this.

Boundary of fine for reckless driving was not mentioned in the draft law. It will fall under the judge dealing with the case. Section 103 of the proposed law says no matter what this act contains, if anybody gets seriously injured or killed in a motor vehicle-related accident, it would be considered as an offence under the relevant sections of the Penal Code, 1860.

However, no matter what section 304B of the Penal Code contains, if anybody causes accident by reckless and negligent driving, and kills or injures someone severely, such person would face a maximum sentence of five years in jail or a fine or both, reads the draft. The offences that fall under section 103 of the draft act are non-bailable. According to the proposed law, if it is found that a driver has deliberately committed a killing or has not averted a killing in a road accident, the matter would not fall under the purview of section 103 of the draft act. It will fall under either section 302 or 304 of the Penal Code. Law enforcement agencies will decide on it upon investigation. The maximum punishment under section 302 of the Penal Code is death penalty while it is life imprisonment under section 304. We think those who will run investigation into the case needs required training.

One of the important sides of the proposed act is that it only deals with driver’s punishment. It is true in this sense that most of the road accidents take place due to the incompetence of drivers, indifference, and tendency to flout road safety rules, reckless driving and unhealthy competition between vehicles. There are also other factors that cause road accidents. The factors are dilapidated roads, vehicles without fitness, wrong signal and markets near roads. There is also a lack of trained drivers.

There is no reason to think that roads will become safe after the passage of the proposed road transport act. It is very important to implement law properly rather than enacting it. The department concerned will have to pay an emphatic attention in this regard. It is necessary to examine the loopholes very well before finalizing the act. We expect the government will pay a careful attention on ensuring road safety.


risingbd/Dhaka/Aug 9, 2018/Ali Nowsher/AI

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