In a bid to describe the runaway transport sector in Bangladesh, ruling MP and transport workers leader Shajahan Khan resorted to storm signal code saying the industry was in a “signal no. 10”.

“The coastal Bangladesh is now advised danger signal no. 7 [as cyclone Fani bears down]. The government takes measures when a cyclone approaches. We [in the transport sector] are taking similar steps,” he said on Thursday (May 2) at a meeting with owners and workers in Dhaka.  

No driver or transport owner “intentionally” causes a vehicle to crash, said Khan, who heads the Bangladesh Transport Workers’ Federation.

Expressing concerns on recent court verdicts over road crash, the former minister said transport owners will go out of business and workers will lose livelihoods if it continues.

Lambasting talk shows in media he said, only laws with provisions of maximum punishment for drivers was not sufficient to curb road crashes.

“A scientific approach is needed for that,” said Khan, who had come under widespread criticism in the past for his remarks on the transport sector and road crashes.