Road safety

Sir,
This has reference to the Road Safety Week that was celebrated from Jan 4 – Jan 10. There is no doubt that a large number of people lose their precious lives in road accidents.The major causes of road accidents are rash driving, overspeeding, driving without wearing helmets/seatbelts, drunken driving, underage driving etc.Similarly,in many cases, it is found that that the passanger buses are overloaded beyond their capacity.Thus, there is need for creating awareness in the drivers and public at large to obey traffic rules.At the same time, there is need to promote cheap public transport system to reduce emission of poisonous gases.Many people buy vehicles without having any space for parking and park their vehicles on both sides of the roads, especially in the interiors of colonies to disrupt smooth flow of traffic.The concerned authorities need to paint all the speed breakers in white, remove encroachment from roads, check illegal parking of vehicles to ensure smooth flow of traffic and safety of passangers. Buses and minibuses,being cheap and affordable means of transport system, are the life line of modern surface transport system.They are used by majority of people because of nominal fare.But sometimes, the drivers of these buses violate all traffic rules while taking the passangers from one place to another. Generally what happens is that they drive at a slow place from their station but as soon as they see another vehicle approaching them, they suddenly increase the speed of their vehicles resorting to rash driving and putting the lives of passangers to risk.When any passanger objects to the overspeeding, rash driving or slow driving, these drivers misbehave with the passangers and care a fig for their complaints.
The drivers and conductors need to mandatorily wear a uniform bearing their names.It must be made mandatory for the drivers to cover a particular distance in specific time failing which the drivers must be penalised. Offences such as overloading and overspeeding need to be taken cognizance of and adequate penality should be imposed on the erring drivers.Sometimes stray animals such as dogs, horses, cows etc. roaming on the roads too cause accidents.Thus, all the concerned Departments need to act in perfect coordination for ensuring road safety.There is also need of the passanger helpline to report various offences and misbehaviour of the drivers and conductors with the passangers as well as getting information about the condition of the roads etc.
Ashok Sharma,
Housing Colony, Udhampur

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