Are we destined to meet with road accidents and loss of very precious lives despite all the precautions we take or intend to take? It seems that ill luck is dogging the innocent passengers on either the NH-1A or its mountainous link roads. Our passengers are paying a heavy price in terms of loss of lives in road accidents. Rapid frequency of road accidents is a highly disturbing scenario and there is a feeling among the people that the Government would do well to have a long term strategy of combating frequent road accidents. The existing traffic arrangement falls short of many pre-requisites.
A minor among 10 passengers and the driver were killed while 30 others got injured, eight of them critically, when a 41-seater bus rolled down at Keya, near Ramnagar in Udhampur district, yesterday morning. The driver is reported to have lost control over the steering when he was negotiating a turn. The ill – fated bus fell down a 400 feet deep gorge. Nine passengers were killed on spot, two died on their way to District Hospital and the injured have been admitted in District Hospital Udhampur with 9 in GMCH, Jammu. Condition of many is described as critical. The District authorities rushed to the site of accident and relief and rescue work was initiated with speed.
We impress upon the state authorities to provide free medical treatment to the injured passengers admitted to various Government hospitals in Jammu region.
Expressing his deep sorrow on the tragic road accident, the Governor has asked the Chief Secretary to submit to him a report on the Road Safety Action Plan in Jammu and Kashmir. It is recalled that the Governor had fixed a clear timeframe for the implementation of various decisions in a high level meeting held in the Civil Secretariat on February 14, 2015, during the period of Governor’s Rule before installation of the PDP-BJP Government. It is in fitness of things to ensure that the stipulations of that Action Plan are implemented. It has become clear that the time has come for the State Government to reconsider the entire transport system in the hilly areas. It has to be a mega project entailing not only widening of the road, cutting the sharp turns, tunneling the hills vulnerable to landslides and making diversions but also cutting new roads. It could be a decade-long project of several billion rupees with class of art technology of mountain road building. This alone can promise secure road transport over this mountainous region.
However, in the backdrop of Ramnagar accident, the Governor has directed that all the concerned enforcement agencies should sternly deal with all cases of overloading and other traffic violations and no unfit vehicle should be allowed to ply on the roads under any circumstances. He particularly urged the DGP and IGP Traffic to enforce stringent measures to check overloading of transport vehicles, check over speeding and carry out a complete verification of all those who drive buses and trucks on the accident prone roads to particularly assess whether they are trained to ply vehicles in hilly areas. These are immediate protective measures which have to be taken as standing instructions for the Traffic Department. Any laxity found in strict observance of these instructions should be dealt with very strongly as that is the only way how traffic accident can be prevented to large extent.
In a number of previous editorials on the subject, we have stressed on the factor of accountability. We reiterate that unless traffic police functionaries are held responsible for the lapses when these are detected after making investigation into road accidents in these hilly areas, and given exemplary punishment, we will have to suffer more accidents and meet with more casualties.
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