The four-member committee, formed to investigate the road accident that left 19 dead and 20 others injured in Madaripur’s Shibchar upazila on March 19, mainly blamed the reckless driving and an unfit vehicle for the accident.

The committee, led by Additional District Magistrate Pallab Kumar Hazra, submitted its report with a 14-point recommendation to Deputy Commissioner Kamal Uddin Biswas on Wednesday noon.

The report also said that though the driver had a licence of running a medium-scale vehicle, he was running a heavy vehicle amid rain.

Read more: Bus falls into ditch in Madaripur: Death toll now 19

Pallab Kumar said Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRAT), Gopalganj deferred registration of the Emad Paribahan’s bus due to desperate driving on November 17 past year and the vehicle’s lifetime expired on January 18 this year but it had been running on the roads violating rules.       

He said they submitted the probe report with the 14-point recommendation to ward off any unexpected accident further.

The recommendations included ensuring licences of drivers and valid documents of all vehicles before operating the vehicles on the highways, using seatbelts by drivers and passengers when the vehicles move on the highways, building the vehicles’ interior with soft objects, constructing guard rail on the both sides of expressways and keeping updated database of all vehicles running on the highways. 

Another member of the probe committee, Moniruzzaman, an additional superintendent of the district police, said the number of sophisticated equipment of patrolling vehicles and manpower of the law enforcing agencies will have to be increased to keep vigilance on the vehicles on the expressways.

He also suggested installing CCTV cameras, trackers and online monitoring systems to lessen the road mishaps.

Moreover, the speed of vehicles will have to be kept under control at night, dawn and during adverse weather, he said.

Earlier on March 19, at least 19 people were killed and 20 others were injured as a Dhaka-bound bus of Emad Paribahan from Khulna fell into a roadside ditch in Madaripur’s Shibchar upazila. 

Later, the district administration formed a four-member committee to investigate the incident.