Illegal three-wheelers are still dominating all the highways of Barishal division though such slow-moving vehicles are strictly forbidden to ply the national highways.

All types of three-wheelers run on every highway, causing disturbance to the easy movement of speedy and heavy vehicles such as buses, trucks and cars.

“I was driving my private car to go to Kuakata from Barishal some days ago. My car was hit by a battery-run auto-rickshaw van from a side when my car reached Bakerganjin Barishalon Barishal-Kuakata highway. The three-wheeler entered the highway from a narrow side road without any signal and hit my car,” said Prince, a businessman of Uttara in Dhaka, adding that his car was badly damaged though none was severely injured.

“We had to return home without visiting Kuakata for the accident.” he added.

“I met an accident inJhalakathiSadar area on Barishal-Khulna highway for saving a three-wheeler auto-rickshaw. I was riding my bike behind the auto but the auto suddenly stopped without any signal. To avoid clash with the auto, I fell on the road and sustained serious injuries.” said Shahin Khan, a bike rider of Jhalakathi town.

“The three-wheelers are the main obstacles for smooth driving on the highways. For this, we have to reduce the speed of our buses repeatedly which needs more times to each any destination,” said Jamal Hossain, a bus driver of Jhalakathi bus stand.

“With safe driving, we can reach Dhaka from Barishal within three hours but for the slow-moving three-wheelers, we need four to five hours. We have to reduce the speed five to ten times within a kilometre road,” said Mamun, a bus driver of PalkiParibahan.

“We have no alternative without driving the auto on the highways though I don’t know the traffic rules,” said Arifur, an auto driver of Rupatoli Bus Stand, adding that they wanted to be trained up for running their vehicles on the highways.

“We are regularly monitoring and trying to control the illegal vehicles,including the three-wheelers, on the highways. As it is the bread earning profession of thousands people, police have to deal it with humanitarian ground,” said Atikul Islam, the additional DIG of highway police of southern region.

There are around sixty to seventy thousand three-wheelers of different types in the division, according to the information of different three-wheelers associations in six districtsof the division.