While Bangladesh has one of the highest death rates in road crashes in the world, the 56-km long Sylhet-Tamabil Highway has one of the highest rates of road traffic crash mortality in the country.
Road crashes have become a commonplace on the highway, especially in its about 30-km part at Jaintiapur upazila. The road traffic death on the road has become an epidemic.
In the context of often multiple fatalities and frequent road crashes in recent times, many believe that the death rate on the highway has reached the highest level in Bangladesh.
“Terrible road crashes are taking place on the Sylhet-Tamabil Highway at its Jaintiapur upazila part one after another and several lives are lost simultaneously in an incident. Such frequent road crashes and loss of lives don’t appear to occur on any other road in Bangladesh. Probably the death rate on this road has reached the highest position in the country,” said Abdul Hye Al-Hadi, an environmentalist and rights activist whose village home is located along this highway at Jaintiapur upazila in Sylhet.
At least 70 people were killed in road crashes last year on the highway at Jaintiapur upazila. The road crashes in the country take place mainly due to reckless driving, excessive vehicular speed, shoddy roads, poorly maintained vehicles, violation of traffic rules and lack of proper monitoring by the authorities concerned.
However, smuggling is the main reason behind the frequent road crashes on the Sylhet-Tamabil Highway as DI trucks, the pickup
trucks which usually carry different goods from the border, with smuggled goods ply recklessly on the highway.
Md Kamal Ahmed, chairman of Jaintiapur Upazila Parishad said that reckless driving of the DT truck is mainly responsible for frequent road crashes and deaths on the highway. Kamal Uddin, a bus driver at Jaintiapur said that movement of three-wheelers, including the battery-run three-wheelers ‘easy bikes’, is also responsible for the road crashes.
“Despite the ban, three-wheelers, including easy-bikes, are often noticed on the highways in the country. The three-wheelers and the easy-bikes are often involved in road crashes on highways,” said Aminul Islam Sujon, technical adviser (road safety, Bangladesh) of global organisation Vital Strategies.
The mafia gang with the help of smugglers controls the deadly DI trucks which usually carry smuggled sugar, tea leaves, onion, cows, buffaloes, cosmetics, motorcycles, mobiles, Tata car parts, surgical materials, medicines and other types of goods from across the border. The pickup trucks also carry liquor, Yaba and other drug items. These vehicles are not seen to be searched at check posts like other vehicles.
The mafia gang controls illegal goods coming through the Jaintiapur, Gowainghat and Kanaighat borders.
The gang conniving with smugglers and some unscrupulous administration officials through third parties is sending the smuggled goods to different parts of the country. Common people, including passengers and pedestrians, are being crushed under the wheels of speedy vehicles of the smugglers.
“If DI trucks plying with smuggled goods are stopped, road crashes will reduce on the Sylhet-Tamabil Highway to a great extent,” Foyez Ahmed, former president of Jaintiapur Press Club, told Bangladesh Post.
In the latest incidents, one of the Mafia gang’s reckless DI trucks loaded with smuggled goods took the lives of six people on Monday (March 18).
Six members of a family, including two children, were killed and four others injured after the DI truck collided with a human hauler on Sylhet-Tamabil Highway in Darbasta area of Jaintiapur upazila. The deceased are the residents of Santosh Patra under Chiknagul union of the upazila.
Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Jaintapur Model Police Station Tajul Islam said that the road crash took place when a cow-laden pickup van collided with a human hauler. Four people were killed on the spot, while two others succumbed to injuries on the way to hospital.
Just 13 days before this road crash, three youths lost their lives on March 5 on this highway near Jaflong Valley Boarding School, just a few kilometers from the spot of Monday’s incident. The youths who were friends, aged from 19 to 20, were killed after a speeding pickup truck rammed into their motorcycles.
Faisal Reza, 19, son of Jaintiapur Upazila Awami League General Secretary Md Liaqat Ali was one of the victims of the March 5 road crash. “How many more fathers will lose their children on the highway due to speeding cargo trucks driving recklessly,” said Liaqat Ali with regret and sighs.
Two days later, two people, including a six-year-old child were killed, and 10 others injured in a collision between a truck and a tourist bus on the Sylhet-Tamabil highway at Upmanpur area near Haripur Gas Field at Jaintiapur upazila.
Earlier at the beginning of this year, four leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) were crushed to death by a pickup truck on January 20 on the same highway near the Banglabazar Bridge at Jaintiapur upazila, a place near the spots of the recent other road crashes.
At least seven other people were killed in the last three months on the highway at its several parts, including Baghersarak and Chiknagul at Jaintiapur upazila. Most of the road crashes took place after DI trucks loaded with smuggled sugar and other goods lost control or rammed into different other vehicles.
Although these road crashes happened one after another, the authorities concerned are still not taking any action to stop unfit vehicles and the DI trucks loaded with smuggled goods.
Kamal Ahmad, a bus driver said that strict measures taken by the administration against unfit vehicles and drivers carrying illegal Indian goods could reduce road crashes on the Sylhet-Tamabil Highway. Although movement of three-wheelers is also responsible, reckless driving of banned DI trucks is mainly responsible for the frequent road crashes on the highway. Movement of motorcycles, private cars and other heavy vehicles at excessive speed are also responsible. It is important for drivers to be aware of this, he said.
