If you are a parent, you probably know that when your kid is determined to re-enact a specific moment of her favourite cartoon, it’s best to agree with her and go with it – if you want to safeguard your sanity. This is exactly what I did last week when my six-year-old daughter, inspired by the Disney’s Rapunzel cartoon, decided to make a sky lantern for sheer fun. We went to the roof, lit the paper lantern and watched it fly away high, until it became a speck of light in the sky.
That is when I wondered, how would it feel to look up at the sky one evening and find it ablaze with thousands of lanterns? How about 3,137 lanterns? Wouldn’t that be an astounding view? What if I told you that each lantern represents a life lost in a road accident – 3,137 shattered dreams, 3137 families losing a part of their souls – will that scene still be just beautiful to you? For me, it would probably seem like the saddest beautiful scene I ever laid eyes on.
Every time we tame an epidemic, a new and bigger monster raises its head. Road accident is one such beast that is peeking around the corner and snatching lives at every moment, especially when you are least prepared for it. According to WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety, more than 1.24 million deaths occur globally every year because of road accidents. It has been identified as the eighth leading cause of death. Road accidents are more common in low and middle-income countries.
In Bangladesh, the situation is unfathomable as the exact number of deaths caused by road accidents is not available. We only know about the cases that are being reported to the police. According to official reports, 3,137 deaths from road accidents occurred during 2012-13. However, based on the data from four newspapers, activist organisation Nirapad Sarak Chai recorded 5,162 deaths by road accidents only for 2013.
Half of the cases of deaths go unreported since the victim dies on the way to the hospital or after being released from the hospital. These incidents do not just cost lives or cause suffering to families, it also affects our economy.
So, are these accidents inevitable? Who should be blamed for all these deaths? This will start the blame game: “It’s the fault of the driver. He was driving too fast;” “no, it’s the careless pedestrian who should have used the foot over-bridge;” “our legal system is corrupt. Why are the police not taking action against all those unfit vehicles and perpetrators?” “Why doesn’t the BRTA provide more trained drivers?” “You know the government is not taking it seriously and spending enough money to improve our roads.” The blame will keep on shifting, depending on whose side of the story we are listening to. The truth is, we all share the blame for ignoring our bit of responsibility.
A recent research by PPRC and Brac revealed an intriguing bit of information. The bulk of accidents during 2012-13 was concentrated within 54.7km of our highways. The research also discovered that the accidents are mostly happening in bus stands (41%), road intersections (17.8%), and marketplaces (28%).
This gives us a contradictory picture compared to the popular perception that accidents happen in crowd-free highways. Experts have also identified better road signs as an effective measure to stop accidents from happening. Can we stop accidents by focusing on fixing the “54.7 km route”? Probably not, but this can definitely be a quick fix for saving some lives.
However, quick fixes may change a scenario temporarily, but unless we take long-term strategic action, such efforts will be futile. We need to take definitive steps to improve the capacity of BRTA in producing an increased number of licensed drivers, strengthen our laws against traffic violations, and minimise the scope of corruption by monitoring authorities and promoting transparency. All in all, long-term commitment from government, NGOs, activists, and the general population is crucial if we really want make a change.
Now, coming back to why I started this write-up with the lantern story. What if we arranged an event every year for people to come together, light a sky lantern in the memory of their loved ones who were killed in accidents? If, on a given evening, no one shows up – because no lives were lost, no dreams were broken, and millions of droplets of tears were saved – the event would probably be one of the most unsuccessful ones in our history, but wouldn’t that be a failure worth fighting for?
