Bangladesh has made the dope test mandatory for all professional drivers as authorities move to tighten regulations to check growing accidents. Drug addiction among drivers is one of the key reasons for road accidents in the country. Roughly half of the total professional drivers are believed to be addicted to some kind of drug. 

In 2021, a total of 6248 people, including 798 drivers, were killed in 5371 incidents of road accidents, according to a report by Road Safety Foundation (RSF) in Bangladesh. 

Almost a year after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called for tightened measures for road safety, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority  (BRTA) on Thursday implemented reforms, denying licenses to those drivers who fail dope tests, reported The Daily Star. 

Importantly, non-professional drivers have been excluded from the mandatory testing.  Drivers operating commercial vehicles, rental cars, and government vehicles will be considered professional drivers. 

Rapid urbanization and industrialization, increasing mobility, and lack of sufficient regulations among others are primary reasons, suggested the report by the RSF released last week. In comparison to 2020, deaths have risen by almost 13 percent in the following year, 2021. Unprofessional and semi-trained drivers along with institutional inefficiency of the BRTA were among the reasons. 

The whopping increase in deaths involving motorcycles - almost 35 percent of the total fatalities - is a cause of worry for the government.  

After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s instructions in October 2020, BRTA had formed a committee to look into reforms and measures for improving road safety in the country of 160 million. 

Speaking on Thursday, Mahbub-E-Rabbani, spokesperson of BRTA, said, “We will have implemented other recommendations on phases." Increasing on-spot dope tests is one of the recommendations, which the authorities have already implemented, he said.

However, the implementation of the mandatory dope test for driving license is unlikely to be an easy one as almost 50 percent of the professional drivers, according to some reports, are believed to be addicted to some kind of drug. 

 (SAM)