A critical review of the road safety laws in Bangladesh

Abstract

In Bangladesh, road traffic accidents continue to be one of the most serious public safety issues, taking an estimated 20000 to 25000 lives each year and causing enormous social and financial hardships. This thesis critically analyses Bangladesh’s road safety laws, paying special attention to the Road Transport Act of 2018 and Road Transport Regulations of 2022. The report examines the legislation strengths, limitations and scope. It also finds implementation gaps and places Bangladesh’s strategy in relation to global best practices. The research sheds light on systemic flaws that impede efficient enforcement by combining doctrinal legal analysis, policy document assessment, secondary statistics reporting and primary field work data. The main conclusion include fragmented laws, inadequated instituational coordination between law enforcement, DTCA and BRTA a lack of post-crash response systems and the political clout of transport unions elements like corruption, ignorance and public acceptance of risky activities. Trough the incorporation of user-centric perspective’s on law enforcement and the filing of gaps in comparative analyses, the thesis adds to the body of literature.