Nasir Muzahid
Oh! Papa, please buy a car, I will go to school by it." That was the last demand Hamim made to his father. But the father could not meet the demand as his son died in a road accident on February 3 this year. Hamim Motaleb still weeps out whenever he recalls the loving memories of his son.
He said, "Hamim wouldn't sleep unless I returned home from business at night and would jump to my lap when I reached home." But now there is nobody who keeps himself awake for me and jumps to my lap for a loving kiss, he added.
Since the day of accident, Hamim's mother Sonia Sheikh has almost been speechless. Sometimes, almost unconsciously, she cries out grabbing the wearing shirts of her son and shouts "My HamimtHamimtcome sontcome and sleep by my side."
Five-year old Kindergarten student of Willes Little Flower School near Kakrail crossing in the city, Hamim was crushed under the wheels of a rushing bus in front of the school as he, escorted by her mother, was crossing the road without using the nearby foot-over bridge.
Saif Ahmed Arnab, a 20-year-old student was about to go abroad for his higher education but had to leave the world forever. He was killed in another road accident in the city's Rampura only before two months of Hamim's death.
Just after two days of Hamim's death, a little girl was killed and another infant along with his mother who, too, was severely injured in a hit and run road accident in the capital while crossing Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue in front of Falcon Hall at Shaheenbagh. On the same day, Saiful Islam, 25, a garments worker was also fatally run over by a minibus at Sonargaon Hotel crossing in the city.
Like Hamim, Arnab and Saiful hundreds of others city dwellers become the victims of road accidents every year that brings shock waves to their relatives and also to the city dwellers. Data have it that some one hundred people die in road accidents in the city on average per month.
According to experts, illegal and disorderly parking, illegal occupancy of roads, non-compliance with traffic rules, lack of traffic rule enforcement, lack of coordination among different agencies and the DCC people for managing city traffic, reckless driving, unplanned urbanization, and frequent experiments with city traffic signal system, managing the traffic signal manually by incompetent and 'rent seeking' police, untrained personnel are the major factors behind the present dismal situation of the city roads.
Experts opine that a city should have at least 20 plus percent of its total surface area as roads, bye roads, lanes etc to make a good road transport system. But the capital Dhaka or metro Dhaka has only eight percent surface area used as its roads and transportation channels. Moreover, these roads are not properly planned, burden with too many intersections or crossings and several rail-crossings as the rail tracks pass through the city--North South- from Joydevpur to Narayangonj- with the massive Kamalapur Railway Station at the heart of the city.
Accident Research Institute (ARI) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in a recent survey study revealed that 43% of accidents across the country involve pedestrians; while in Dhaka City they figure in almost half of the accidents.
The ARI sources said at least 54 per cent of road accident victims are pedestrians, and the main reason for the accidents is reckless driving.
Besides reckless driving, indifference of the pedestrians and their reluctance to use the foot-over bridges or designated crossing points or Zebra crossing are also responsible for this kind of heart-rending accidents.
Most often, some daring pedestrians are found climbing the grilled road divider and crossing the road in a rather hasty manner when the foot-over bridge is just a few yards away.
Though several pathetic accidents occurred in the city in the very beginning of this year, authorities concerned are yet to take any preventive or remedial action. The government has, of late, decided to impose some restrictive rules so that people can walk easily and no such dismal accident takes place so frequently.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) had already started a drive from November 1 to remove all makeshift shops from Dhaka's footpaths for proper utilisation of walkways.
DMP is also supposed to take anyone into custody at least for 24 hours if he or she is found crossing the road instead of using a nearby footbridge or underpass.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has also imposed ban on talking to or using mobile while driving. Buckling seatbelts while driving and wearing helmets when riding motorbikes are also to be mandatory from November 1, said BRTA official.
However, though the authorities have decided to strictly enforce from November 1 the safety rules on roads like fastening of seat-belts for drivers and passengers of all motorized vehicles to curb fatal road accidents, most buses, trucks, micro-buses, three wheelers, human haulers and many private cars still do not have seat-belts.
City dwellers have welcomed the decision but expressed doubts whether the initiative would be successful and at last very poor responses have been found among the city dwellers to follow the new instruction.
They said the authorities had in the past taken similar initiatives to strictly implement traffic rules, but that did not succeed.
Most of the drivers and passengers of different types of vehicles know nothing about the seat-belt rule.
Transport owners said it was difficult to have seat-belts attached to their vehicles as the bodies of transports like buses, trucks and human haulers were mostly locally made and that there was no such system to do so.
'What the standing passengers can do!' wondered Eden College student Afroza Akter Mili who traveled to his college by bus.
'Human haulers have opposite facing bench-like seats and there is no scope to have seat-belts attached to them,' said another passenger.
Meanwhile, city residents also expressed their concern over the rules of compulsory use of overpasses and underpasses. They said how government could compel the citizens to use foot-over bridge while pedestrians most often become compelled to avoid foot-over bridge as the overpasses are always found jam-packed with venders and beggars.
In the evening, the overpasses turn to a safe heaven for the hijackers and sex workers, they added. Many of these over-bridges are, by now, physically unfit for use or in such bad shape that there is risks to use them because they may give up with loads, if used.
Pedestrians are rarely seen using city's three underpasses. Gulistan underpass had already turned into electronics, mostly, pirated or under graded market and Gabtoli underpass is out of order while only few walkers use the Kawranbazar underpass at daylight.
Even, the pavements, built for people to walk on, are broken or occupied by venders, construction materials, nurseries, dustbins or human wastes. Renting out footpaths or walkways is now a big business of political party activists in collusion with the police jawans. As a result, most walkers have to find the smallest area to pass by creating yet another human jam trying to move from one side to the other.
Many women, particularly the garments workers in Dhaka, have to walk to different places. But they get physically abused or dishonored while trying to walk on the streets, pavements or the foot-over bridge.
Sometimes, it is also seen that young men are sitting on the railing of the foot-over bridge and singing and whistling to their heart's content. This type of young man is also seen taking photos of young women walking on the foot-over bridge on their way to work, or to class or maybe even home.
Rehana Akhter, a resident of Azimpur area said, "It is impossible for women to use the Newmarket foot-over bridge as several groups of rock boys remain seated there to tease the girls and women."
There are 46 foot-over bridges and three under passes in the capital. But these are not enough to ensure the easy and safe walk of the pedestrians. No overpass has been constructed as yet in most of the important intersection of the city.
DCC has not yet been able to construct over-bridges at many busy intersections like Janapad (Sayedabad), Motijheel, Gulistan Inter City Bus Terminal, Sahabag, Nilkhet, Azimpur, Kataban, Bata Signal, Kalabagan, Dhanmodi 27, Arong, College Gate, Technical, Mazar Road, Mirpur 14, Kochukhet, Khamarbari, Bijoy Sarani, Sonargaon Hotel, Sheraton Hotel, Gulshan 1 and 2, Badda, Rampura, Shantinagar, Kakrail, Dainik Bangla etc.
Though there are some overpasses near the above intersections, pedestrians don't use those as they are not at appropriate point of the intersections and hence not suitable to cross the intersection.
Farhana Yeasmin Zuthi, a first year student of Dhaka University questioned about the necessity of the foot-over bridge in front of the BIRDEM. She said, "What is the use of that overpass while most of the Dhaka University students and commoners can't use it to cross Sahabag intersection."
On the other hand, some of the city overpasses are getting ineffective or not use worthy as they are not safe or constructed at the proper places. Most of the overpasses don't have overhead cover so that pedestrian can take shelter if it rains.
Though, a good number of citizens use the overpasses at daylight, very few of them dare to use those at night.
Atique SB Sattar, an official of a renowned private bank and a resident of Indira Road said, "Though I use the Farmgate overpass in the morning while going to office, never use it at night as hijackers very often make trap on it."
Most of the over-bridges have no lighting arrangement.
They remain under deep dark patch making it unsafe for users, if any.
However, some senior citizens said that government should first ensure the security of the citizens and healthy environment in everywhere and then have to go to impose the new traffic rules. Otherwise, the new rules will simply embrace the similar fate of all previous moves though sounding very honest.