249 Standalone road safety law: justification and appropriate policy adaptation

Background This study rigorously reviews the existing acts, regulations, and rules and tries to identify the gaps with a view to comprehending the suitability of the existing for dealing with the prevailing tremendous safety problems in a holistic manner and justify the need for a standalone road safety acts or laws in Bangladesh. Methodology A rigorous review of different transport acts, rules, and regulations has been done. Existing police crash investigation and report forms are gone through to see the reported causes and factors. Discussion and interviews have been made with the police personnel with a view to exploring the difficulties faced in reporting and dealing the courts with the current legal framework of road transport. Results The evolution of Road Transport and Safety Laws or acts in Bangladesh has a long history starting from the Fatal Accidents Act 1855. Now it has turned as the Road Transport Act 2018, dealing with the overall road transport system with very minimal safety regulations or rules. Current laws mainly deal with licensing, registration, route permits, traffic and weight control, compensation of crash victims, driver training, and maintenance issues. Important safety issues including VRUs safety, infrastructure safety, emergency management, etc. are absent. Even the existing laws and rules are not strong enough to support a police case against the primary cause of the crash. That's why along with many other problems, the real cause of the crash or factors remain unattended in the police report. Conclusions Road crash has multiple facets and dimensions. There is a long chain involving many sectors, organizations, institutions, and individuals at different levels behind a crash event and without standard rules and regulations, it is impossible to make accountable and responsible every single ring of the chain as well as to improve the overall system. Adopting a stand-alone road safety regulation that compares various road transport pillars involved at various system levels is therefore urgently needed. Such a law can provide a focused, comprehensive, and accountable framework to enhance road safety and mitigate the factors that have been inadequately addressed by existing laws and regulations.