A policeman rushes in to help as a teenager tumbles onto the asphalt trying to get down from the bus. The bus pulled away just when he was getting off yesterday at Sonargaon intersection on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue. The boy only had minor scratches. Less than 24 hours ago at the very intersection, journalist Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury fell on the road the same way and was killed. Photo: Amran Hossain
Recklessness is now the name of the game and Dhaka city has become a dangerous place for everybody on the road, thanks to the sheer indifference of the policemen in applying the law. Buses stop anywhere at will. The whole city is today a big bus stop. At other times, they do not even stop to let their passengers get down. The helpers just ask to passengers to jump off the running buses, just like they did in case of journalist Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury who died day before yesterday at Sonargaon crossing. And passengers have become equally callous. They have forgotten their own safety. At the very intersection less than 24 hours ago, journalist Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury fell on the road when the bus he was getting off of pulled away abruptly leading to his death. Photo: Star The result: At least 134 dead and many more injured in 155 accidents in the metropolis this year alone. But at the root of all this is the utter negligence of cops in enforcing the law. At Sonargaon crossing yesterday after noon, the very spot where Zaglul died, passengers were seen jumping off moving buses as usual. Police sergeants were seen standing close by without bothering to book the drivers. They were rather busy with checking jaywalkers. Private bank employee Mohammad Ismail almost jumped off a running Farmgate-bound bus amid busy traffic at the crossing. He was in a rush, he said. Advertisement At the intersection, motorists drive on when there are pedestrians crossing the avenue using the recently painted zebra crossing. Photo: Star “I need to go to my office on the other side. If I didn't get down, the bus would take me to Farmgate and I had to walk back all the way,” said a nonchalant Ismail, admitting he was well aware that the place was not a designated bus stop. Asked, he said he knew how Zaglul, 66, died there while trying to get off a running bus. Yet, he seemed little cautious about saving his own life. Buses sideswipe each other as they race from stop to stop to get more passengers, endangering people inside the buses, and motorists and pedestrians on the road. Photo: Star Amid such reckless behaviour all around, two more people died in Dhaka and another in Kushtia in road crashes yesterday. There are over 70 traffic signals in the capital. Buses and other vehicles stop at almost all crossings, including at Shahbagh, Airport, Asad Gate, Shishu Mela and Science Laboratory, violating rules. Asked why they stopped bus at crossings, a conductor of a Mirpur-Gulistan bus said they did it because most of the time passengers wanted to get down at crossings. Also, those who want to get in wait at crossings. A man jaywalking on the avenue. Photo: Star On whether police allow them to do so, the conductor said traffic cops chased them sometimes, but they could “manage” the law enforcers. Mosleh Uddin Ahmed, joint commissioner (traffic) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said did not know that buses stop at Sonargaon and other crossings. “I will gather information about it and take steps to stop it,” he told The Daily Star by phone. Since 2009, at least 950 pedestrians died in 1,102 accidents in the city. Many have been crippled for life, said Ahmed. A car, apparently government owned, uses the gap in the central reservation, meant for pedestrians, to make a U-turn in front of the foreign ministry yesterday. Photo: Star According to The Daily Star reports, at least 8,270 lives have been lost in road accidents between January 2010 and June 2014 across the country, meaning at least five people died every day. During the same period, at least 21,886 people were injured in 5,674 accidents. Many of them later succumbed to their injuries while some others became permanently disabled. An analysis by this newspaper shows about 73 percent of all road accident victims belong to the most productive segment of the population. They, belonging to the 14-50 years age group, are either engaged in economic activities or are students. According to police record, on average 3,000 people die each year in road accidents across the country. The World Bank and the World Health Organisation put the figure at 12,000 and 18,000 respectively, says a 2011 report of the Accident Research Institute at Buet. Students torch buses the Islamic University in Kushtia had leased to carry them after a fellow student was killed under the wheels of a university bus. Photo: Star TWO MORE DIE IN CITY Private university student Mozammel Kanchan, 23, died after being sandwiched between two buses in Malibagh around 9:00am yesterday. Sanjay, a witness, said, “The victim remained pressed for about five to seven minutes. Locals rushed him to a hospital.” The two buses involved are of Karnaphuli Paribahan and Dibanishi Paribahan, he said. Doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital declared Kanchan dead. He had been working as an intern at a private company after completing his BBA, family members said. The accident happened when he was going to his office. In Kalyanpur, a BRTC bus conductor died after being hit by a BTRC bus. The victim is Helal Khan Hridoy, 18. The accident happened early in the morning when the bus was trying to get off a bus depot in Kalyanpur. Hridoy was standing at the depot entrance. The driver ran the bus over him while reversing, said his uncle Abul Kalam. Police, however, said he was about to cross the road. Meanwhile in Kushtia, a student of the Islamic University was crushed under a bus yesterday, triggering widespread violence on the campus and prompting the authorities to shut the university indefinitely. Enraged by the death of Wahiduzzaman Titu, 23, fellow students torched 13 buses, vandalised at least another 17, ransacked several university buildings including the administrative office, and clashed with law enforcers for hours.
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