Daganbhuiyan Zero Point Faces Growing Accident Risk Amid Traffic Mismanagement

The Daganbhuiyan Zero Point area in Feni, a critical road communication hub for the upazila headquarters and neighboring regions, has become a hotspot for traffic congestion, illegal parking, and sidewalk encroachment, severely compromising pedestrian safety. The risk of accidents escalates sharply during peak market hours, school dismissal times, and evenings. Minor collisions occur daily due to reckless competition among drivers defying traffic regulations, while pedestrians express constant fear over speeding vehicles.

A recent on-the-spot visit and interviews with locals confirm the growing danger. Public anxiety intensified following a recent serious accident at Zero Point widely discussed on social media, where a truck rammed a motorcycle, critically injuring two people, before losing control and crashing into several CNG-run auto-rickshaws parked in front of the Bonphul sweet shop.

Local traders point to a combination of factors behind the chaos: excessive vehicle pressure, reckless speeding by motorcycles and auto-rickshaws, and pedestrians forced onto the main road due to overcrowded footpaths and market spillover. The crisis is compounded by the unchecked movement of smaller vehicles and severely limited traffic management. Road fatalities in Daganbhuiyan Upazila have spiked recently; notably, Junaid Kawsar Sourav, a Sub-Assistant Engineer of the Daganbhuiyan Municipality, was killed when a speeding vehicle struck his motorcycle.

"Zero Point is a complex roundabout where four to five roads converge," a local trader explained. "Severe bottlenecks are triggered by random parking of auto-rickshaws and CNGs right on the Noakhali-Feni Regional Highway. Vehicles speed through without respecting any limits, forcing pedestrians to dodge reckless traffic."

Currently, Daganbhuiyan Municipality has deployed only two personnel to manage traffic at this massive intersection—an arrangement locals say is entirely inadequate to control the disorder.

Jasim Uddin Liton, General Secretary of the Daganbhuiyan Bazar Kalyan Samity, emphasized that the intersection cannot be cleared without removing the illegal CNG and auto-rickshaw stands from the main highway. "The local administration has attempted this multiple times but failed. Drivers refuse to follow regulations. Traffic flows smoothly only when enforcement officers are physically standing there; the moment they leave, the chaos returns," Liton said.

Acknowledging the crisis, Daganbhuiyan Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Faizul Azim Noman stated that he has officially requested the concerned authorities to install dedicated traffic and police boxes at the intersection to ensure round-the-clock monitoring.

Meanwhile, regular commuters and pedestrians have urged authorities to introduce modern traffic solutions, drawing comparisons to AI-based traffic monitoring initiatives recently tested in Dhaka. They believe installing speed-calming measures and automated speed limit enforcement on the Feni-Noakhali Regional Highway is the only way to permanently curb the reckless driving threatening local lives.