Ensure safe transport focusing during the Eid

Rayhan Ahmed Topader:

Every year thousands of people leave the capital for their village homes to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims, with their near and dear ones. This year around 213 launches will transport passengers to at least 43 destinations during the festival. Millions, who would soon start departing for home on the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha, would have loved to put faith in the assurances of the roads and transport minister about supportive measures for making this year’s Eid-journey ‘comfortable’. But the bitter experiences of recent years and the current state of roads and highways, as reported in the media, do not encourage them to expect anything better than that of the yester years. The home-bound journey during Eid festivals in recent years remained quite perilous. Commuters do usually face lots of troubles both before and during the journey. Procuring tickets of all types of transports, especially of trains and buses, is hell of a job. Most people do count an extra amount for buying tickets from the black market. But remaining stuck-up for eight to ten hours in traffic gridlocks due to bad road conditions or inadequate ferrying facilities is considered to be the most troubled part of Eid-journey. None would expect the journey to be entirely trouble-free, for people in their thousands move from one place to another on one single occasion Transport is the movement through any device of humans, animals and goods from one location to another. Bangladesh’s transporta tion sector receives insufficient attention and funding for important navigation channels that suffer from poor maintenance, and they also lack adequate depth for safety infrastructure. Many river port facilities for cargo and passengers are dilapidated with unsafe conditions and not hospitable to women, children and vulnerable passengers.The rural roads across the country badly need contentious repair and rehabilita tion. Reduced quality, construction, and carrying capacity of part of the secondary and tertiary road network is common, and large portions of roads are blocked during the rainy season. Yet, the national maintenance budget for rural roads is in deficit. Moreover, weak public mass transport, ineffective traffic control, the mix of motorized and non-motorized vehicles, poor road manners, illegal parking, compliance, and the presence of hawkers contribute to excessive traffic congestion. Those factors increase damage, death, travel time and economic loss, and they have harmful consequences for public lives, health and the environment. Road crashes kill during Eid/festivity:In Bangladesh at about 339 people were killed and about 1,265 injured in about 277 road accidents during the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays this year, 2018. Transport or journey must not be the cause of human lives in particular at Eid or any other festive time. Accident may happen, hence, transport management systems must strictly set in place to safeguard the public through the best laws, policies, rules and compliance. Most importantly want an ongoing developing culture where the safety and wellbeing of the traveller is paramount. Kinds of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline and space. The management of transport includes tracking and managing every aspect of vehicle maintenance, fuel costing, routing and mapping, warehousing, communications, implementations, traveller and cargo handling, carrier selection and management, accounting and so on. A transportation management system (TMS) deals with the planning, execution and optimization the movements of goods. In simpler terms, it’s a logistics platform that enables users to manage and enhance the daily operations of their transportation convoys. Transport management decreases damage, death, cost, increases safe and reliable journey and delivery through collaboration across all modes and providers. The policies, processes and procedures surrounding a travelling workforce is termed journey management’, mandated by law. Journey risk management is a driver assistance and risk management system for safe and controlled driving. Guides the driver for safe driving and provides warning to driver on route risks involved, such as speed and stoppage. A journey management plan is typically a set process that you follow for planning and undertaking road transport journeys in compliance with requirements, with the goal of arriving safely. Transport standard authorities, organisations, consortia and groups that are involved in generating and maintaining standards that are relevant to the global transport technology, transport journey planning and transport ticket/retailing industry. It also deals with formal standards development organisations; other national and international bodies developing ultimate core specifications. Safety should always be main concern, whether you are driving or riding. Serious accidents often occur when drivers make poor decisions, such as driving too fast or turning too quickly. Passengers also face serious injuries or even death if certain safety precautions not taken. Accidents caused by unsafe driving can result in high medical costs, legal action, and a major loss of income. All drivers and passengers must use seat belts. Never fill a vehicle over capacity. Make sure you are carrying your driver’s license. Do not drive if your license is expired or has been suspended. Always obey speed limits, including any speed limit signs have posted. Watch your speed, and do not take sharp turns or curves too fast. Do not tailgate other vehicles, keep a safe distance. Use your turn signals when changing lanes and when making any other turns. When driving from field to field, always drive safely as if you were on a normal road. Don’t speed, drive too close to ditches or the edge of steep embankments, and watch for trees, large potholes, and other obstacles. Turn on the headlights at night and in poor weather conditions. Passengers always use your seat belt. If no seat belts are available, ride in a different vehicle. Never stand up in the bed of a pickup truck or sit on the rails. You may fall out and seriously injure yourself if the vehicle hits a bump or has to make a sudden stop. Do not hang out of the sides of the vehicle while it is in motion. You could be injured or killed. Always keep your hands, arms, legs and head inside the vehicle. Do not engage in horseplay or other activities that may distract the driver and cause an accident. If you ae carrying tools in the vehicle, make sure they are in a secure location where they won’t fly out and hit others. Do not drive if you are overtired, ill, or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Avoid driving if you are angry about something that happened at work or home. Angry drivers can easily lose their concentration and cause accidents. See to it that all instruments on the vehicle are in good working condition. These include headlights, windshield wipers, tires, brakes, seat belts, horn and mirrors. If any are not working properly, notify your supervisor. Check to see that all tires are properly inflated. Make sure the vehicle is equipped with a first aid kit and an emergency repair kit. If either of these are missing in a company vehicle, let your supervisor know. Take responsibility for the actions of passengers you are transporting If you see a passenger stand up, hang out the side of the vehicle, or do anything else that could result in an accident, tell the passenger that it is against our rules, then stop the vehicle as soon as you safely can and tell the person to get out if he or she will not comply with the rules. Also, notify a supervisor of the problem as soon as possible. Always drive defensively. Be on the lookout for people, animals, other vehicles, and anything else that could result in an accident. Preparing and executing a transport management system may sound mind-numbing and costly, however, to tell the truth, it does have to be and most of the authorities acknowledge the need for this. Everybody desperately want to avoid headaches from potential losses, damages and lives cause by transport mismanagement. Hence, follow the guidelines during Eid/ festivity and round the year for safe, faster and comfortable journey. Overall, the situation during the upcoming Eid is likely to be no different from those on earlier such occasions. But a few appropriate measures can help make the life of the Eid-goers a little easy. On this count, it will be an important task on the part of the relevant agencies to remove all obstacles to free movement of vehicles through roads and highways. To make that happen, the repair and construction work needs to be kept suspended for a week, ahead of next Eid. Similarly, restrictions on the movement of trucks and three-wheelers should be imposed some days before the largest religious festival of the Muslims.

Writer and Columnist,   raihan567@yahoo.com