Days after the two young students died in a tragic road accident in Srinagar’s Tengpora, the Traffic Police have intensified its crackdown on the minors riding two wheelers and four wheelers in a bid to save precious lives. The accident shook the entire Valley and serious questions were raised by concerned people regarding the parental attitude to allow their teenage siblings to drive two wheelers or four wheelers. While parents have to discourage such practices, the Traffic Police, transport authorities and general public should also pitch in to ensure that teenagers are not allowed to drive and thus risk the lives of their own and also others.
Reports published by newspapers suggest that the Traffic Police have geared up to check the menace and have seized almost 1000 vehicles, the majority of them two-wheelers—bikes and scooties over past four days. However, while this crackdown continues, the officials are of the opinion that to check the menace on roads, the parents have to cooperate. The minors are on the wheels despite this crackdown by Traffic Police and this is the grim reminder that parents are still not taking the issue seriously.
The roads in Jammu and Kashmir have become death traps. 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 Transport and Traffic authorities — everything has conspired to make J&K a terrible place in terms of road accidents. Indeed if the frequency of traffic accidents, which is shooting up with each passing day much to the shock and awe of the people is any indicator, then it goes without saying that driving on the roads and streets here has become a massive security hazard.
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 into virtual death traps. There are about seven hundred thousand vehicles in the UT 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 so constricted in the state that pedestrians find it hard to get along a road without fear of being hit by a passing vehicle. 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.
The reckless driving is the main reason behind such mishaps. Driving by teenagers has emerged as a serious challenge to the society and no matter how efficiently Traffic Police tries to curb this trend, there are no chances of success unless the parents cooperate and disallow their children from driving. Need is to launch an awareness campaign and ensure proper counselling of parents, who allow children to drive and also the children desperate to be on the wheels.