Road accidents on Dhaka streets remain surging throughout the years. While the government introduced myriad legal provisions for enhancing road safety under the Road Transport Act of 2018 (effective from November 2019), it languishes session after session.
The recent videotape of an atrocious hit and “attempted” run incident in the Dhaka University area brings back this conversation. As the victim's body trapped between the rolling tires was dragged along several hundred yards, people witnessing the fatality reacted immediately, bending over backward to stop this maniac driver, a former Assistant Professor of the University of Dhaka.
The recently enacted Road Transport Act of 2018, replacing the previous Motor Vehicle Ordinance of 1983, addressed a broad spectrum of road safety regulations such as driver's licenses, motor-vehicle fitness, speed limit violations, and motor-vehicle accidents, and updated the sentences of imprisonment and fines.
But, only a limited number of provisions spell out the consequence of the offense of death caused by motor-vehicles. More importantly, none of the provisions separately penalizes “hit-and-run,” a traffic collision followed by actual or attempted escape from the scene of an accident.
Precisely reiterating the existing law, the liability for loss of life or property caused by a motor-vehicle is stipulated in Section 98 although overridden by Section 105 of the Act of 2018.
To narrow it down, in case of offense of grievous injury or death by driving a motor-vehicle occasioning the accident, a maximum term of five years imprisonment, or fine of Tk5 lakh, or both could be imposed under S 105, notwithstanding the provision of the Penal Code 1860, the main criminal legislation of the state imposing a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment or fine or both under Section 304B (the only provision penalizing the offense of “death” by rash or negligent driving).
Needless to say, the definitional lacunas and ambiguities of the provisions as well as the adequacy of the sentence still remain a matter of debate.
The statistics of road traffic fatalities keep moving upwards proving the policy discourse to be inadequate every time. The 2021 Annual report of the Bangladesh Road Safety Foundation demonstrates a cumulative figure of nearly 14,000 people being injured or left dead from road accidents, stating that the highest chunk of 30.85% fatality occurred in the Dhaka Division.
On the other hand, the statistic on the rate of conviction from judicial proceedings against such fatalities to measure legislative success remains unavailable.
Laws across the world regarding hit and run
Coming back to the burning concern of hit-and-run, most jurisdictions in the world recognize the act of leaving the scene of road-related fatality as a distinct offense and an integral part of road safety laws.
For instance, in China, a fixed term of seven years imprisonment is given for a hit-and-run resulting in death with revocation of a driver's license with a ban for a lifetime.
Likewise, the laws of South Korea provide for five years to life imprisonment along with a heavy fine.
In Canada, a failure to stop at the scene after being aware of bodily harm or death caused by driving can be penalized with up to 10 years sentence or lifetime imprisonment.
Similarly, New Zealand increases the sentence of punishment up to five years with a mandatory disqualification for up to 12 months.
Several other states like Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America have provisions for a minimum of six months imprisonment for punishing hit-and-run cases.
In Bangladesh, The Vehicles Act, 1927 also contains a provision with a similar tune in Section 5: “Duty to stop vehicle for regulating traffic and in case of accident” requiring a person to “stop a vehicle and remain stationary” in incidents of vehicle collision.
But, the penalty for violating the said provision is only Tk100 and can be increased up to TK200 for repetitive offenses. Not only is the provision derisory in terms of its practicality of the penalty, the language of the provision clearly fails to address the offender who himself has caused the motor-vehicle casualty.
As such, reformation of the law addressing “hit-and-run” as a supplemental offense and imposition of separate punishment in addition to the existing penalty for road-accident is required.
Additionally, awareness needs to be raised in regards to the moral duty as well as possible penalty on the issue so that accidents are not aggravated by such attempts for escape.
To sum it up, the exponential growth of the transport network is one of the leading causes of increased road-related casualties along with many of its concomitant concerns, but it is important to acknowledge that road fatalities are not inevitable.
Thus, active implementation of road safety mechanisms must be ensured through judicious and timely action.
But, prior to that, the state must equip itself with ample laws and policies to prevent and deter loss of life in the most inhumane way possible.
As unfortunate as it is to mention that the death of two school children back in 2018 was the catalyst for the reformation of the road safety law, it can only be hoped that the tragic death of Rubina Akhter screams loud enough to focus on initiating effective legal reforms and prioritizing the urgency of implementation of road safety laws in the country.
Rozina Ripa is a Law Officer at a Private Commercial Bank in Bangladesh.
