ZCZC
BSS-14
CABINET-ROAD TRANSPORT-ACT
Cabinet Okays revised road transport law with tougher punishment
DHAKA, Aug 6, 2018 (BSS) – The Cabinet today approved a revised road
transport law suggesting five years of imprisonment alongside penalties for
rough driving leading to deaths and grievous injuries while the term was
three years under the existing law.
“The cabinet today approved the Road Transport Act 2018 with provisions of
highest five years of imprisonment for reckless driving while the term was
three years so far,” cabinet secretary Md. Shafiul Alam told a media briefing
emerging from the meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The approval came in the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s
Office as Road Transport and Highways Division placed the draft as a
supplementary agenda amidst recent nationwide students’ movement for safe
road.
“The new law has many deviations from the existing ordinance of 1983 while
it introduced new provisions like point system in the driving license,” the
cabinet secretary said.
He said the proposed law demanded that the professional drivers must be 21
years old having educational qualification of at least eighth-grade for
getting the license while the non-professional drivers, however, could get
the license after reaching 18.
A driver would have 12 points against his or her license which would be
deducted for violating traffic rules and the license would be scrapped if
someone lost all the points.
Alam said if the driver was found to have deliberately caused a crash
causing someone’s death would be tried under the existing Penal Code and face
the death penalty.
The cabinet secretary said the amount of monetary punishment for reckless
driving was not specified in the draft law, which preferred to leave the
matter on trial judges.
BSS/AKH/AR/1540 hrs