Road Safety Coalition Bangladesh has demanded the formulation of a separate road safety law based on the internationally recognized five pillars or safe systems approach in the Road Transport Act 2018 to make roads safer.
The five pillars are safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads, and post-crash care.
The demand was made in a press conference of the coalition, a platform of nine organizations working on road safety issues, at Zahur Hossain Chowdhury Hall of Jatiya Press Club on Tuesday.
The chief guest at the press conference, Ilias Kanchan, chairman of Nirapad Sarak Chai (NISCHA), said: “While the matter of issuing road transport rules is a commendable initiative, there are some limitations in it.”
He noted that the current Road Transport Act 2018 and Road Transport Rules 2022 are not sufficient to ensure road safety.
Explaining the reason behind this claim, he said that the current Road Transport Act-2018 and Road Transport Rules-2022 for ensuring road safety in the light of the five pillars described in the United Nations Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 and the five pillars described in the Eighth Five Year Plan of the Government of Bangladesh, have not been enacted.
“Therefore, we demand that a separate road safety law be formulated as soon as possible,” said Elias Kanchan.
