Despite suffering massive casualties year after year on the roads, Bangladesh just can’t seem to solve the mystery of road safety. According to the latest data compiled by Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, 475 people were killed in road accidents in November alone, while another organisation, the Road Safety Foundation (RSF), put the number at 467. The RSF further reported that over 80 percent of the victims were aged between 18 and 65 years—the most productive segment of our population.

For a better understanding of the extent of devastation caused by road crashes, here are some more numbers. As per RSF data released in January, the loss of workforce caused by road crashes in 2022 amounted to Tk 23,460 crore in Bangladesh. Including damages to property, the figure would amount to more than 1.5 percent of our GDP. It is widely believed that even these startling numbers do not represent the real picture, as many such incidents go unreported. Add to that the psychological and financial scars that every family of a road crash victim/survivor has to endure.

At this point, what can we say about this menace that hasn’t been said already? We all know where the problem truly lies: long-standing systemic challenges including poor road and traffic management, reckless driving, unfit vehicles being allowed on the streets, etc. We have yet to see the full implementation of the Road Transport Act, 2018, even though five years have passed since it was passed into law. That is mainly because the authorities are unable to withstand the pressure of the powerful transport owners’ associations. Their lobbying effectively blocks or weakens every road safety measure that could be unfavourable for these vested interest groups.

It is ironic that the government has made great strides in developing communication and transportation systems over the last 15 years or so—building bridges, expressways, culverts, roads, etc—but still failed to ensure safety. This clearly indicates to a lack of political will to break the status quo. Six months ago, the government in collaboration with the World Bank rolled out a huge five-year project, with a budget of nearly Tk 5,000 crore, to make our roads safer. We are unsure how effective it will be if the underlying systemic challenges are not first addressed. What citizens need now are results, and they need that fast.