WE THE PEOPLE
Will Panthal road fatalities awaken Traffic officials? Will it prompt them to fall heavily upon Traffic Violators?
Hence people seek CM’s intervention, demand drive against rash driving and overloading to end loss of precious lives
By: Shirjeel Ahmad
Srinagar: It seems that precious lives shall continue to get lost on J&K Roads, which became clear when 26 persons including few tourists and family members of armed personnel lost their lives besides more than 40 others injured soon after an overcrowded passenger bus in which they were traveling rolled down a deep gorge near Panthal police check post on Katra Udhampur road shortly after 7.00 p.m on Wednesday, June 24,09. It was a 42-seater passenger bus bearing registration no. JK02E -7525 in which more than 70 passengers were traveling at the time of the accident. The bus was jam packed so tilted on one side and rolled down the deep gorge. Rocky terrain made matters worse as passengers received head injuries and at least 18 among them died on the spot. Others succumbed to their injuries while they were being shifted to the hospital. The angry local residents in Panthal area staged a protest demonstration against the traffic officials for not curbing overloading and rash driving.
Hardly a day passes without catching headlines of newspapers, reporting grim tales of fatalities occurring in different parts of the State, mostly in Doda district. The treacherous road connecting the said district with Srinagar-Jammu highway has been consuming precious lives occasionally with no respite. Many families continue to lose bread-earners and thus pall of gloom continues to descend on such houses with no sign to end such miseries. This has set-up a wave of unrest and anger among the general masses, which accuse traffic cops, police personnel of total apathy and above all the Government for its failure to improve road communication system in the state of J&K.
It is now noticed that whenever road accidents occur, people come out on streets and launch protests against the Traffic Department. Such fatalities are generally due to rash driving and overloading with no one to check such traffic violations. Even teen-agers are spotted at wheels with no one to rein them. This establishes beyond any shadow of doubt that all those concerned with the Enforcement of Traffic Rules have either gone into deep hibernation or have been behaving as mute spectators for the reasons not known.
As far as Kashmir Valley roads are concerned, these have not undergone any appreciable improvement during the last six decades and even encroachments have taken place on main roads and footpaths without any resistance from the concerned quarters. Besides there has been heavy influx of automobiles, which are totally incompatible with the space available to them on the roads. It is a fact that city roads cannot be widened because of age-old structures, but the concerned Engineers have equally failed to construct sub-ways, fly-overs, Zebra crossings and not provided traffic signal system on the main highways.
As per statistical data, over 6 lakh Asian road deaths per year amount to half of the world’s total accidental deaths. J&K canvas too depicts grim areas with huge number of fatalities. This is due to lack of infrastructural development, lack of awareness among the masses and above all non-implementation of Traffic Laws by the custodians of law and order in the state. It is learnt that there are above two lakh vehicles on Valley roads, out of which 1.25 lakh are on Srinagar roads which exclude floating traffic in the form of tourist buses and vehicles of security force.
Therefore, people seek CM’s intervention, demand improvement of highways, drive against rash driving and overloading to end loss of life. It is high time that the Government overhauls and restructures the Traffic Department so that element of accountability gets infused and becomes visible. Once the traffic cops launch a drive against rash driving, overtaking and overloading, the number of road fatalities shall come down to a great extent. The government must go for adoption of traffic signal system, as it will streamline traffic in a better manner. Manual control generally fails and it is automatic signal system that works well in all situations. It must also go for construction of sub-ways, fly-overs and Zebra crossings to provide space for heavy flow of automobiles on Kashmir roads.
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