'Punishment to transport owners too for accidents'

FE Report

Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain has said the government will include a provision of punishment to the transport owners in the Motor Vehicles Act, which is now under revision, in view of their responsibility in connection with road accidents.

"The drivers are certainly responsible for road accidents but the owners may project such unwanted situations to make them conscious about the value of lives," the minister told reporters Thursday after he visited Mirsarai of Chittagong district to express sympathy to the families of the schoolboys who died in a truck accident last Monday.

Some 39 students of a Mirsarai school met their end of lives when a truck carrying them home from a football match skidded off the road into a canal.

The incident cast a spell of grief over the entire nation. The educational institutions across the country observed a day mourning Wednesday wearing black badges. Most of the envoys of foreign missions also expressed their condolences over the accident.

During his visit to the spot of the accident the minister admitted that the driver was mainly responsible for the worst-ever such accident. He however said the elderly people who arranged the boys' return from the place in a truck also had some responsibility.

The minister visited some houses of the victims' families and declared providing Tk 25,000 for each family of the deceased and Tk 10,000 each for those who were injured.

He also offered education free of cost for other children of these families in his constituency up to high level.

Secretary of newly set-up Railway Division and chairman of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation accompanied the minister during the visit.

View the original article here