Officials of National Institute of Mass-communication (NIMCO), journalists and rights activists have said that most of the deaths and injuries caused by road crashes in Bangladesh are preventable.
Speaking at two separate views-exchange meetings in Chattogram, they said that road crash reports published in the media provide little information about their causes, impacts or preventability. They emphasized on the role of the media to sensitize the society on the road safety crisis in order to take necessary precautions on reducing road crashes.
One of the views-exchange meetings took place with journalists of Chattogram Press Club, while another was held with officials of Proshika Human Development Centre at Panchlaish in Chattogram on Saturday (February 3).
NIMCO officials attended the events as the views-exchange meetings took place under NIMCO’s research project ‘The Role of Media in Promoting Road Safety in Bangladesh’.
Professor of Sociology at Jagannath University Farhana Zaman is performing duty as the principal researcher.
The two separate views-exchange meetings were held in order to carry out data of the research project properly. President of Chattogram Press Club Salahuddin Md. Reza, General Secretary Debdulal Bhowmik and other leaders of the journalist community in Chattogram and Deputy Director of NIMCO Mohammed Abu Sadique, Research Officer Md. Fahim Siddique, Research Assistant Sharif Mominul Islam and Assistant Librarian of NIMCO Kazi Omar Khaiyam were present in the meetings.
The Press Club leaders gave opinions on organizsng training, providing fellowships, giving awards to leading journalists, and arranging follow-up workshops for increasing professional skills on road safety.
The meeting discussed the causes of road crashes, role of drivers, BRTA, highway police, traffic police and transport owners.
The traffic law and license issues were also discussed in the meeting.
The issue of taking science-based steps to increase the skills of journalists to contribute through research-based writing and consciously presenting them was also discussed.
The speakers of the two events said that engaging the media to disseminate information can help prevention activities, particularly when road crash is considered as public health issue.
