In addition to creating wide-ranging mass-awareness, strict enforcement of traffic rules has become an urgent need to reduce road accidents, speakers at a discussion said.They viewed the country experiences over 5,000 road accidents in every year claiming over 4,000 lives and injuring many others.The total loss of properties in the accidents is estimated over Taka 5000 crore which is 2 per cent of the country’s total GDP.They were addressing the closing session of a two-day training workshop on “Enhancement of competence and awareness of the professional drivers”, jointly organised by the district administration and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) in its conference hall here today.Around 500 persons comprising government officials, human right activists, leaders of road transport workers and representatives of transport owners associations were present at the discussion.BRTA Director (Law) Meer Khairul Alam and its Regional Deputy Director Uttam Kumar Barua addressed the session as chief and special guests respectively with Additional District Magistrate Fazley Rabbi in the chair.General secretary of Rajshahi divisional committee of Bangladesh Road Transport Labourers Federation Kamal Hossain Rabi, chief instructor (Power) of Rajshahi Polytechnic Institute Rashid Mallik, RMP Traffic Inspector Raihan Ibne Rahman and BRTA Assistant Director Sedequl Islam also spoke.The speakers mentioned that the driver alone isn’t responsible for any accident but other reasons like frequent movement of the pedestrians are equal responsible.They underlined the need for a strict enforcement of laws together with collective efforts of all to reduce road accidents significantly in the country.
The speakers observed that road accidents could have been reduced substantially if the authorities concerned discharged duties properly while providing driving licenses and fitness certificates. -BSS, Rajshahi
