Srinagar July 17: Observing that the authorities in J&K are not aware of their responsibility in avoiding loss of lives in road accidents in the state, the High Court on Wednesday directed the government to inform it about the protection measures necessary for safety of passengers especially the school children.
Hearing a public interest litigation, a division bench directed the responsible government authorities to place before the court protection measures necessary for the safety of passengers and school going children in the state.
The court observed “the traffic rules and regulation are violated with impunity resulting into loss of precious lives due to road accidents and the authorities are not aware of their responsibility”.
The court stressed up on the authorities to implement road safety measures and save the precious lives lost in the road accidents. The court directed the Inspector General of Police Traffic (IGP) to ensure and place before the court the report that traffic rules are followed on ground.
The officer has also been directed “to examine and consider e-challenging and e-linking of same with the traffic courts”.
Details of challans affected against the violators shall also be placed on record and IGP shall personally monitor the said process”, directed the court.
J&K recorded the highest number of fatalities in road accidents in a decade in 2018 while as ten major road accidents resulted in the death of 69 persons and injuries to 132 by the end of June this year.
Official data reveals that last year 908 people were killed in 5,529 road accidents across the state till November while as the number of people injured stood at 7,250.
As per the records one person gets killed in an accident every seven hours while as someone is left injured every hours.
A study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research in 2017 revealed that Jammu and Kashmir topped the list in “deaths and disabilities caused by road accidents”.
The study also reveals that accidents and violence accounted for 41% of deaths of people in the age group of 15-39.
According to the data of the last ten years, 60000 road accidents have taken place in J&K and more than 80,000 people have suffered injuries.
Srinagar the summer capital of the state reported the maximum road accidents in Kashmir province.
