Photo : BSS

DHAKA, Feb 1, 2026 (BSS) - The Road Safety Coalition Bangladesh (RSCB) has called upon political parties to make a commitment to enact a separate Road Safety Act based on the Safe System Approach in their election manifestos. 

The RSCB, an NGO working on road safety in the country, made the call at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) here today, said a press release.

Road safety expert M Khalid Mahmud read out the written statement in the press conference while Road Safety Project Manager of the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB) Kazi Borhan Uddin moderated it.

Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) Country Coordinator Dr Md Shariful Alam, Steps Towards Development (STD) Executive Director Ranjan Karmakar, BNNRC Chief Executive Officer AHM Bazlur Rahman, National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh's Programme Director Dr Mahfuzur Rahman and representatives from various member organisations of the coalition spoke at the press conference. 

Speakers at the press conference said that Bangladesh's first law governing road safety and transport was the Motor Vehicles Ordinance of 1983. 

Due to numerous shortcomings in the law's road safety provisions, the sector has long faced legal complexities, they added. 

To address these issues, they said, a draft law was prepared in 2012, adding, later, in 2016, with government and relevant stakeholder participation, a draft titled the Road Transport and Road Safety Act was finalised. 

However, the speakers said, it could not be passed at that time.

Noting that road traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of death and injury in Bangladesh, the RSCB said according to data from various government agencies, an average of around 5,000 people are killed and more than 10,000 are injured in road accidents each year. 

However, figures from the World Health Organisation, non-governmental organisations, and the media suggest that the actual numbers are significantly higher, it observed.

Every year, both the number of road accidents and casualties continues to rise, creating a major burden on the economy and the health sector, the organisation said.

Speakers emphasised that the existing Road Transport Act, 2018, is primarily focused on the transport system, saying, critical road safety issues-such as speeding, helmet and seatbelt use, driving under the influence of alcohol, safety of children and vulnerable road users, accident investigation, and data collection-have not been adequately addressed. 

Moreover, they said, the current law is not fully aligned with the five pillars of the United Nations' Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.

In this context, the speakers stressed that ensuring road safety requires enacting a separate Road Safety Act grounded in the UN-recommended Safe System Approach, saying the objective of this approach is to design road systems to prevent deaths or life-altering injuries, even when road users make mistakes. 

Many countries around the world have significantly reduced road fatalities by adopting this approach, they said. 

The RSCB stated that a separate Road Safety Act is essential to reduce deaths and disabilities caused by road accidents, achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets 3.6 and 11.2 by 2030, and fulfill Bangladesh's commitments made at the Fourth Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety held in Marrakech, Morocco, in 2025.