Freestyle movement of vehicles during hartal causes accidents
Imrul Hasan
Although a small number of vehicles move in the city during the hartal hours, their freestyle movement creates a mess in the traffic.The bus drivers do not comply with the traffic rules and follow the signals during the shutdowns in the absence of adequate number of traffic police. Pedestrians also cross the city roads without using the zebra crossing as the policemen remain busy tackling demonstrations by the pro-hartal political activists. The pedestrians cross the roads even when the green light is on. Tempos, rickshaws and rickshaw-vans also ply violating traffic rules during the hartal hours. "We do not need to follow the traffic signal as there are a few vehicles on the road," said Dulal, a pedestrian, when asked at Bangla Motor intersection during a recent hartal. Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) sources said almost 50 percent of the usual traffic remains on the city roads during the shutdowns. "This is enough to create a chaotic situation when the drivers do not follow the rules," said a source. "During hartal we pay more attention to the political programmes on the streets. Managing the traffic is very difficult with small number of traffic policemen," said Alfaz Ahmed, an on-duty police officer at Mouchak intersection. He said the non-motorised vehicles such as rickshaws and rickshaw-vans ply the VIP roads recklessly in the absence of sufficient traffic police on the hartal days. Babu Mia, a rickshaw-puller said: "We can save time by using the VIP roads. We get this opportunity during hartal and the passengers also want to use these roads." The bus drivers also take the advantage of a thin traffic during hartal and run their vehicles at a high speed. This leads to road accidents, police officers said. "We drive fast because pickets can set fire to our vehicles or pelt bricks to damage the glasses," said Habibul Islam, a driver at Gulistan intersection. Asked, high officials of the DMP admitted that they have shortage of traffic policemen. "Despite the shortage of manpower, we try our best to manage the traffic and maintain the road safety. People should also be conscious about following the traffic rules," said Mizanur Rahman, the commissioner of DMP.
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