As heartening as that prospect is, the statistics are still quite dire: The number of road crashes increased by 30% in the last year alone, and while the government has made promises like this before, so far, they have been nothing but words that were never followed by visible actions.
Bangladesh has had a horrendous track record when it comes to punishing individuals who violate traffic rules, to the point that there have been two large-scale road safety protests in the span of just four years.
And yet, the roads continue to be stained with the blood of citizens.
Perpetrators of road accidents are so confident in their power that they have had the audacity to assault protesters and they have the audacity to continue to drive with unfit vehicles, with a lack of papers, and even while under the influence of various substances.
To that end, the provision of mandatory dope testing for motorists is a great first step. Also encouraging is the announcement of a task force being formed to oversee road safety as a dedicated issue.
The current administration, while being the one that has acknowledged road safety as an issue compared to its past iterations, has been justifiably called out for its lack of enforcement when it comes to traffic laws, mostly attributed to corrupt law enforcers and traffic regulators. It would be an obvious solution to weed out these problem individuals, and send out an example to any would-be offenders as well.
The status quo needs to change and change fast. The state of our roads and highways has gotten bad to the point where it is detrimental to our very lives. The government has pledged to take at least the first step to that overhaul. They cannot drop the ball again.
