Streamlining road safety

The Governor has expressed anguish on traffic and many concerned departments failing to improve road safety in the State, especially along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. From time to time some corrective suggestions or some new instructions are communicated to the traffic police and other enforcement agencies by higher authorities, but these are not implemented. On an average we have no fewer than 1000 deaths by road accidents in a year. This is huge national loss and many lives could be saved if safety measures recommended earnestly were implemented.
The Governor has taken up the case of road safety with full seriousness. He recently presided over a meeting in the Secretariat in which heads of a number of departments were present besides those of the traffic and police departments. It was something like a stock taking meeting in which the Governor took up each issue for assessment and evaluation and further action. The foremost subject in this context was the almost non-performance of the J&K State Road Safety Council. This Council was instituted in 2012 and was expected to meet often and take stock of efforts of streamlining road safety measures particularly along the National Highway. In three years, the Council has held just one meeting in which it made some good recommendations, which, when implemented would definitely improve things with road traffic. But to his surprise and to the surprise of the people even those recommendations have not been implemented. Actually, this Council should have taken its job seriously and met at short intervals and assessed the situation and monitored the implementation of its recommendations. We have, in a recent editorial, invited the attention of traffic authorities towards the recommendations of the first meeting of the Council and demanded that the administration should take steps of their early implementation.
A host of matters relevant to road safety have been touched upon by the Governor in the course of the special meeting that had been convened. Awareness of traffic rules and traffic culture is important for ordinary people to know. But in order to systematize this, the Governor has suggested that traffic awareness should be part of the curricula in schools. He thinks that by introducing Road Safety as a subject, the students will begin to learn traffic rules from very early childhood. We think this is a cogent suggestion and the students will certainly like to opt for it because it is so closely connected with safety of life on our traffic-crowded streets. He directed the School Education Department that by next academic session, the subject should be introduced in the curriculum
The Governor has issued a number of instructions which the concerned departments have to implement within a specific time. What we find is that the state administration is afflicted with the disease of inertia. Things move at a snail’s pace. That is what the entire administrative structure has to understand. Why should not crash barriers be completed within stipulated time? What happened to Critical Care Ambulances on the roads that would have helped in saving many lives during accidents? When funds were provided and the scheme was approved why should fail at the level of implementation?
Many illegal and unauthorized encroachments along the Highway have taken place. This is a matter within the jurisdiction of the Deputy Commissioner concerned. He can order the revenue staff under his control to submit a report on these encroachments and if satisfied that these are illegal he can get them vacated through the instrumentality of District Police organization. But the situation on ground is that the officials have not take any step to vacate the encroachments and thus indirectly adds to the insecurity of road traffic. Ten Trauma Care Centers were to be opened to provide support to the passengers who suffered trauma owing to road accident. Only five out of ten are functional and that too only partly and not in full. Why did not the Health Department under whose supervision these have to function, take proper action to ensure that all the ten Centers functioned properly? If these lacked trained staff or necessary equipment, the matter should have been brought to the notice of the Government. That has not been done. This is simple inertia, unwillingness to take one’s duties seriously and no commitment to public good. Again District Road Safety Committees have also been formed for each district. The purpose of these Committees is to be part of Road Safety bandobast. In practice these Committees have remained non-functional. They were supposed to brief the administration about what possibilities of improving road safety can be there within their jurisdiction. They needed to interact with Traffic Police Department. They needed to convene half yearly or quarterly meetings with traffic authorities or others who matter. Nothing of the sort has been done. This is not the way how we can improve our road safety system. In the area of Specialized Certification and Inspection Centers and Driving Schools in Jammu and Srinagar, very little, rather negligible progress is made. One big reason of road accidents has been that the drivers of trucks or buses or other vehicles are having only fake driving licenses. They have not received professional training from a recognized institute. The suggestion was to have inspection system of the documents of the drivers and their machines and their aptness to be allowed to ply on the roads. This exercise has not been carried out and Government driving schools are nowhere in existence. Among other related matters are road designs to be taken care of at the time of building a new road or repairing a damaged road. Technically qualified road designer agency must give green signal to the builders and then alone can the road be made.
In final analysis, we may say that the specially convened meeting presided over by the Governor should be a landmark in the history of various measures taken by the State Government in streamlining road safety measures. The Governor has fixed the dates for completion of various works and these were announced in the meeting. It is the duty of the heads of the organizations to see to it that these works are completed within the stipulated time. Governor who has taken deep interest in even the minutest matter pertaining to road safety should be able to see to it that his instructions are implemented failing which accountability law should come into force.

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