Food for Thought

It is good to see that the proposed and much talked about Road Transport Act draft has been finalised. To me, articles, seminars, talk-shows, and laws do little while the death toll continues to rise. Until and unless, that is, people learn how to behave responsibly. Laws are undoubtedly necessary, but punishment can only be served after the occurrence of any incident. But as a nation, we have to do something. Something to make people conscious enough so that accidents are reduced, if not eliminated. My intention is to introduce “defensive driving” as a simple, cost-free technique for motorists, which can ensure demonstrating safe and responsible behaviour, which can lead to significant progress in the upkeep of road safety of the country. Many of our drivers do not have safety in mind / Photo By: Mehedi Hasan It means that while driving, the drivers need to keep in mind that other drivers or pedestrians are prone to be careless and make mistakes, and it is up to

“Five killed in a head-on collision.” “Three killed by a truck.” “Two schoolboys run over while crossing road.” “Five members of a family killed in a road crash.” These have become mere sentences in our everyday news which, honestly, do not hold the shock value like they did in the past. But the families who have lost their loved ones are the only ones burdened with the pain of such unexpected and sudden loss. The pain is unbearable when a person has to hear news of his/her child’s early death due to someone’s recklessness behind the wheel. If we closely study the road accidents which occur in our country, we will find that most of them are not really accidents per se — because, for a catastrophe to be classified as an “accident,” it is implied that all the necessary measures/precautions were taken by the motorist. Photo: Rajib Dhar In the case of most of our road accidents, we can point to a motorist’s carelessness (bordering on callousness) as the cause of the fatali