The organisers of Brac's awareness programme, we are told, had a shocking experience when they conducted training programmes for drivers. It is really disturbing to know that most of the drivers were found to be totally ignorant of traffic rules. Obviously, risk of accident will be vastly increased if a driver knows nothing about traffic rules. Yet, the lives of people are put into the hands of these untrained and inexperienced drivers. Under such circumstances, it is far from logical to blame accidents on destiny. We have clearly failed to eliminate even the controllable risk factors.

Other elements of Brac's programme include training pedestrians on road safety skills. This is also a very important matter, because pedestrians' indifferent attitude on the road accounts for a large number of accidents. The issue of supporting road accident victims also came up. Government decision-makers should take note of the recommendations made at the workshop.

The communications minister is for legal action against faulty vehicles and drivers without genuine licenses. The realisation, belated though, obviously needs to be acted upon now. What we believe is that the authorities should order them off the roads or have those that are repairable made road-worthy on pain of punishment. The minister also spoke of the government plan to redesign roads for ensuring greater safety of pedestrians. This is a long-term plan. But for now we would like to see the roads cleared of jalopies and trained drivers with knowledge of basic traffic rules put in charge of buses, mini-buses and trucks.