The other day, a local news agency reported that in past five months, 346 people have died in road accidents in Jammu and Kashmir averaging two fatalities per day. Besides in all these 2,318 road accidents 3,089 injuries were reported. Every day we talk about deaths and injuries in road accidents and every day we discuss loopholes that characterize the traffic management in Jammu and Kashmir. Be it faulty road engineering and pathetic condition of roads, or for that matter the reckless and mad driving by people on the wheels, or the lax attitude of corruption-ridden Transport and Traffic authorities — everything has conspired to make J&K a terrible place in terms of road accidents.
Road accidents, it goes without saying, are taking a great toll on human lives now than it was ever before. Some years back stray incidents of road accidents would occur here and there in the state but now it is three to five accidents a day with the number of deaths and the wounded people at times exceeding the number of accidents which have turned the roads here into virtual death traps. There are about seven hundred thousand vehicles in the state which make it absolutely high number if other factors are also taken into consideration. The roads which are considered backbone for the proliferation of vehicles in any state or country, have become constricted. Hilly roads are another peril – not only are they in bad shape in terms of engineering, the public vehicles ply on them without any checks, which adds to the dangers.
It is an ill-devised strategy to let the population of vehicles multiply unchecked to match the number of persons in the state in absence of the roads. Then there is the problem of reckless driving. Nobody bothers to have any checks in this regard. Even though it is a common knowledge that those plying public transports and goods vehicles are the most ruthless and reckless on the roads, but so far nothing has been done to tame their drivers and owners. Transport authorities are issuing driving licenses, permits and fitness certificates without taking the requisite qualifications into consideration. The indiscriminate issuance of driving licenses to those who do not undergo proper trainings and subsequent tests for securing the licenses as per the rules makes the mess more striking. It is opportune time to pay immediate heed to the matter so that frequency of road fatalities is brought down. Road fatalities are avoidable, and government must do whatever is needed to avoid recurrence of such deaths.
