As the number of accidental deaths in the country is constantly increasing, the proverbial journalist Nirmal Sen's wish for a 'guarantee of natural death' is mocking today! It is difficult to say when we are going to embrace this death of impunity!
The long indifference of the organs of the State, when death by accident begins to march, they are somewhat disturbed. Their forays into media activism sometimes run parallel. They went to sleep again!
Having reached this depressing state, we have to wait every day, what is going to happen! The frequency of accidental deaths in newspaper offices is such that the severity of the incident is judged by numbers alone.
Although it sounds bad, the value of human life has become so worthless today that in the chaos of new events, where today's 'crying roll' disappears after two days, none of us keep track of it. The reality has brought us to such a place that if we call this present society 'lifeless', 'valueless' it would probably be an understatement.
Last Monday (March 25, 2024) afternoon, the death of a CNG-powered auto-rickshaw driver named Safur, who was burnt in the fire of a gas cylinder explosion in the Gachbaria Kalghar area of Chandanish, Chattogram, has shaken even the stony heart! These two days, the image of Safur burnt to embers on the Facebook page has come back and stung us.
According to the incident report of the fire service, in the Gachbaria area of the highway, the police ordered a dump truck carrying sand to stop, but the driver disobeyed the order and continued to drive at a high speed. When the reckless speeding truck rammed the CNG-powered auto-rickshaw, the auto-rickshaw's cylinder exploded and the unfortunate driver met his death sitting on his seat.
Yesterday (March 26, 2024) we got the news of the death of 5 members of the same family before the grief of Safur's death was over. According to the news, 5 members of the family were electrocuted due to a cut live electricity wire in Juri upazila on Tuesday morning in Juri's East Goalbari village.
Accidents will happen, some will be injured; but it goes without saying that the march of death in perils around is getting longer and longer because of the fragile management of state departments. If we talk about road accidents, then we have to say that the country's roads are like death traps.
Accidents can happen on the road but there is a limit to that too. It is possible to bring this level down to a tolerable level through good use of technology, law abiding tendency of all concerned and strict supervision of the authorities. A large number of our government employees travel abroad for various 'projects' (gaining experience, shopping etc.) with public tax money.
We don't know whether our 'royal servants' have traveled abroad to gain experience from countries that have become role models in the world by preventing road accidents, but they should definitely do so. If you have been on such a trip, we want to know what experience you have gained! To stop this march of death on the road, it is necessary to make a big change in the attitude of those concerned with the implementation of the law and we do not know what the alternative can be to completely change the reality of Bangladesh.
But just one word can be applied. That is, 'radical change'. But the leaders of the ruling party's transport sector or the interested 'royal employees' will allow such a change at all or have given it in the past! The simple answer is 'no'.
In the free discussion of the last two days on social media, the opinions expressed by the citizens only about the transport and communication sector, deserve a wide discussion. However, some comments about the use of cylinder gas as a vehicle fuel and the current reality to what extent puts us at risk, are undoubtedly warranted. Many people think that gas cylinders used in cars are walking bombs.
We do not know how many vehicles are running daily with these moving bombs (expired or unusable) in the country. Just as there is a sudden stop and search to check the validity of the vehicle's documents on the road, there is no such oversight by any authority to check the usefulness of the cylinder.
But how important the matter is, the relevant experts will surely say. But we can understand this from little knowledge, there is a lot of indifference in this area and we also hear that the regulatory authorities have no difficulty in 'managing' the concerned to get the clearance. That means the lack of good governance can be held against every agency concerned with accident prevention.
We don't know if the state will take any drastic measures to stop the death of citizens on the road or if the 'harder' measures will finally work! But it seems that there is no good time in sight, so our sigh may be prolonged.
In the same way, the statistics of fire accident deaths that we have been getting to know in the last decade, there is no way not to be shocked. Unplanned urbanization and industrialization will not go down in history as the loss of countless human lives.
As many lives were lost at the hands of those concerned, the state may be on the side of the powerful by acquitting those responsible. And 'people are the source of all power' type of words, the people of politics will change the bill of power!