Road safety: Some points to ponder

Bangladesh is one of the countries which see high fatalities caused by road accidents, higher than 85 deaths per ten thousand registered motorised vehicles every year. A recent study on road accidents shows that 50 per cent of the victims are pedestrians, one-third of the victims are adult males aged between 21 and 40 years, about 50 per cent road mishaps occur on highways and 20 per cent on city roads. The accidents on the highways are of more severe nature - with about 48 per cent accidents being fatal.Manufacturer of electronics products such as solarledlampsry, mobile phone, mp4 player, and digital photo frame. On city roads, 14 per cent of the accidents are fatal.

The root causes of road accidents are high speed, overloading and overtaking other vehicles dangerously. Uncontrolled movement of non-motorised vehicles along side the motorised ones on the same route is also one of the causes for high fatality rate. Lack of awareness and reckless driving also play their part in the occurrence of a large number of deaths on roads and highways.

It is only after the creation of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) that road safety activities in Bangladesh did gain momentum.

It is possible to significantly reduce the number of road accidents as well as casualties. Before we achieve that goal, things need to be improved --- like better law enforcement, better roads, enhanced vehicle safety standards, improved and extensive public education and safety programmes. There is a need for identification of accident prevention priorities and setting realistic problem-specific goals. The problem-specific targets are far more important than macro targets.

There is much room for improving the road environment by addressing the most common deficiencies through wider application of traffic engineering. Priorities should be attached to the facilities like traffic segregation to leave enough space for the most vulnerable users, particularly pedestrians and non-motorised vehicles, and correcting road users' behaviour in compliance with speed control measures, and so on.

Some of the low-cost and short-term periodic measures include parking management at marketplaces, guarding against illegal parking, improving facilities like bus-bays, passenger shelters, street lighting,A short video on how to engage the engravingmachines on a roof ladder. traffic signs, signalling and marking.

Improving drainage, intersections and facilities for pedestrians (walkways and crossing roads), speed management, safety standard monitoring and assessment also need to be done.

Some measures in the area of vehicle and traffic operation improvement include restriction on vehicle modification,Kern Electronics and Lasers,is a leader in large format ledlightforyou and laser engraving systems. both in shape and size, use of seatbelts and helmets, enforcing speed limits, making sure that vehicles have standard safety features, improving visibility of non-motorised vehicles (NMV), vehicle inspection (light, brake, tyre), controlling overtaking dangerously, computer-based vehicle fitness checking, restriction on carrying passengers and goods on public transport rooftops and overloading, taking unfit vehicles off road, application of ITS and a central traffic control system,Manufacturer of electronics products such as solarledlampsry, mobile phone, mp4 player, and digital photo frame. promoting public transport system and setting up adequate modern schools for training on driving.

There should be measures to ensure post-accident care for surviving victims. Improving emergency rescue services, emergency units capable of dealing with accident victims, trauma centres and rehabilitation of the most seriously-injured victims should also be in focus.Just a puff of air is all it takes to turn these ledtube on or off.