Road safety programme of the government lacks adequate fund support and professionalism when fatality rate in road accident is the highest in Bangladesh.

Speakers viewed this at a day-long workshop on 'Road Safety in Dhaka Metropolitan Area' organised by the Strategic Transport Planning Project (STPP) of Dhaka Transport Co-ordination Board (DTCB) at the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) conference room on Thursday.

According to an official of Road Safety Cell (RSC) of the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the annual fatality rate in road accident in Bangladesh is 85.6 per 10,000 vehicles followed by Nepal 62.7 and Myanmar 47.7. Experts said that road accident situation in Bangladesh is very alarming.

In the developed countries where the number of motorised vehicles is many time higher, the fatality rate is below three per 10,000 vehicles.

Concerned bodies have not yet developed a coordinated and planned approach of data collection on road accident, the speakers said.

In this context, they emphasised on more accurate and detailed information on the causes of road accidents. If real causes of road accidents cannot be identified on the basis of statistical analysis of accurate and planned data, it will not be possible to formulate an effective road safety plan , they said.

Dr Mohiuzzaman Kazi of the World Bank said that the World Bank will say 'Good Bye' to the transport or road development related project in Dhaka if separate movement of non-motorised transports cannot be ensured and traffic management is not improved.

Speakers suggested that the government or the Ministry of Communications can allocate a chunk of money for maintenance, road safety and victim compensation purposes. One of the speakers said "where we are investing Taka thousand crore in road sector development, we do not spend any money for road safety purpose."

Some officials of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and Road Safety Cell said that due to fund constraint they cannot implement many awareness and educational programmes to reduce road accidents.

Chaired by Prof. Dr. M Anwar Hossain, founder Vice Chancellor of Islamic University of Technology (IUT), David H Jarrett, team leader of the Strategic Transport Plan (STP) Project of the DTCB, Brig. AHM Abdullah (Retd.) Road Safety Specialist of STP, Zakir Hossain, Executive Engineer of the Road Safety Division of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), SM Tajul Islam, Manager, Road Safety Cell of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), Prof. Dr. Md. Mazharul Haque, Accident Research Centre (ARC), BUET, M A Jalil, Police Superintendent of Faridpur and Dr. M Amjad Hossain, Professor of Ortho Surgery of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (MCH) presented papers at the workshop on different aspects of the road safety issue.

An official of BRTA at the seminar said that National Road Safety Council formed in July 1995 could not implemented even 30 percent of its first strategic transport plan.

Coordination and monitoring of National Road Safety Strategic Action Plan 2002-04 are being affected due to lack of fund. Activities of Road Safety Cell of the BRTA are only confined within the distribution of leaflets. Staff of the cell are not getting salaries for the last seven months, he said.

Brig. AHM Abdullah (Retd.) said that of the accident victims about 53 percent are pedestrians, one-third of the victims are adult males between 21-40 years. About 60 percent accident occur on national and regional highways and 40 percent on city roads. Accident on national highways is more severe as 73 percent of the accidents are fatal where 42 percent accidents are fatal on city roads.

After undertaking road engineering interventions, vigorous safety campaign and intensive activities for improving traffic control, fatality rate in road accident has dropped to 1.4 per 10,000 vehicles in the UK1995 from 40.1 in 1944.

Poor enforcement of traffic law, absence of proper drivers' training and testing, weak publicity on road safety issue, lack of vehicle fitness and adequate medical services to the victims of road accident are the main causes of road accident, Abdullah said.

Road Safety Specialist Brig Abdullah said that 58 percent of the accidents in Bangladesh are caused due to human character, 34 percent due to road characteristic and 8 percent due to lack of fitness of vehicles.

The overall national cost estimated for road accidents in Bangladesh is Taka 39 billion, which is about 1.5 percent of current GDP and approximately three times the recent annual expenditure of Roads and Highways Department (RHD).

An NGO activist said that all blame should not be put on rickshaws, but the increased number of buses on city streets has been causing road accidents and traffic jam in the city.

David H Jarrett, team leader of Strategic Transport Plan (STP) said that highways and other transport modes should be designed, maintained and operated with the safety of all users in mind.

Jarrett said that road indication in Dhaka city is very poor and there are too many road side bill-boards and advertising.

The STP project of the DTCB that started its work in March this year, is due to submit a 20-year long transport plan for Dhaka city in November next.