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Quader blames it on drivers, passengers

Transport management responsible too, he says on overtaking accidents

Staff Correspondent
Road management is not responsible for the accidents that happen due to reckless overtaking; rather drivers, passengers and transport management system are to blame, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said yesterday."Road condition has nothing to do with it [accident]. Drivers and passengers are responsible for it," the m inister said.
Quader, also general secretary of the ruling Awami League, said this while inspecting a Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) drive against faulty vehicles in the capital's Hatirjheel area yesterday morning.
His comments came a day after Titumir College student Rajib Hossain died of his injuries he suffered in a road accident.
On April 3, Rajib, a third-year student of Government Titumir College, lost his right hand after it got stuck between two buses trying to overtake each other in the capital's Banglamotor area.
Amid criticism over road safety centreing the incident, bus helper Khalid Hossain Hridoy lost his right hand in a collision between a bus and a truck on Dhaka-Khulna highway in Gopalganj on Tuesday morning.
"We saw a helper lose his hand due to reckless overtaking. He should have been careful in the bus. We have to be careful that another vehicle may go past my vehicle.
"See, the boy lost his hand. I have seen that an important newspaper blamed the road mismanagement for it. What does road management have to do with it?” he said.
Asked who was responsible, the minister said, “Road condition has nothing to do with it [accident]. The drivers and the passengers are responsible. That boy might have been at fault as well. He might have not stood at the proper place."
The minister said the residence of Dhaka University vice-chancellor was ransacked during the quota reform demonstrations. "What can the VC do about the quota reform? This is something like that [the connection between road accident and road management]. The transport mismanagement system is to blame. Why would you write about road management?” he said.
THE CONTROVERSY
After media reports linked his comments with Rajib's death, the minister later in the
day claimed he did not talk about the college student.
He said that he pointed fingers at "inattentiveness” of bus helper Hridoy.
At a press conference at Awami League's Dhanmondi office, he said, "I challenge that I didn't say that it was Rajib's fault."
"I began my speech with Gopalganj bus helper. I clearly said Rajib was killed tragically due to overtaking completion of the buses,” he said.
He also claimed that the media did not present his statement correctly.
Transport experts often blamed the unhealthy competition among buses as one of the main reasons behind the accidents in Dhaka.
They also blamed plying of unfit vehicles, unskilled drivers, drivers without valid papers and people’s lack of awareness about road safety for the accidents.
Both the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and the BRTA are under Quader's ministry. The RHD is responsible for road management, while the BRTA deals with registration and fitness clearance of vehicles and issues licences to drivers.
During the inspection yesterday, the minister said the government finalised a guideline on "seating service" buses in the capital and the BRTA had already sent it to Regional Transport Committee which would enforce the guideline soon.
"Although it took a long time, it has been solved," he said.
In the drive against faulty vehicles, two mobile courts of the BRTA yesterday fined 56 vehicles for plying the city streets violating relevant laws.
The courts that conducted the raid in Hatirjheel and Satrasta areas also filed cases against owners of the vehicles - bus, minibus, car and CNG-run auto-rickshaw - for not having fitness certificates and other documents and realised Tk 83,600 in fines, said a BRTA press release.
HRIDOY STILL NOT OUT OF DANGER - PAGE 2