Loss of lives is tragic
Road mishaps have been a routine in Jammu and Kashmir. The reason being the region being a hilly area with many areas still falling in remote zones where road accessibility has always been an issue. Besides, the reckless and rash driving in most of the urban and semi-urban areas by the youngsters is also leading to many road mishaps and loss of human lives besides rendering many injured.
Even during the past year the fatalities in various road mishaps have been too high with the region reporting loss of 713 lives. The figure is too high given the ratio of population and the deaths that have occurred.
Last year nearly 5100 accidents occurred across the UT, in which 713 persons were killed and 6447 were injured. 589 accidents were reported fatal and 4447 non-fatal.
Out of the total mishaps 3278 mishaps were reported in Jammu division, in which 521 persons were killed and 4241 injured. 102 persons were killed and 1175 injured in Jammu district, 76 killed and 536 injured in Kathua, and 63 persons were killed and 313 injured in Ramban.
In Kashmir, the figures reveal that 1758 accidents took place since January 2021 in which 192 persons were killed and 2206 injured. 36 persons were killed and 333 injured in Srinagar, 25 were killed and 140 injured in Kulgam, and 21 persons were killed and 340 injured in Anantnag district.
Ironically, rash driving and violation of traffic rules are the basic reasons for rising accidents and loss of lives. Even the Lieutenant Governor raised the issue several times and the concerned officials were tasked to identify factors contributing to road accidents and take proactive measures, ensuring enforcement of safety laws in true spirit and making improvements in the response system and spreading awareness on road safety, the issue seems pretty complicated to be resolved by these measures alone.
The administration besides imposing these measures needs to resort to scientific and technology-driven traffic management for highly effective road safety measures.
Training of traffic police, strengthening manpower, generating awareness amongst the people, especially in educational institutions, crackdown on drunken driving and speed, roping in volunteers for road safety programs also need to be taken up seriously to address the challenges.
These being the primary steps the administration also needs to rope in parents of young adults to aware them about the risks of rash driving which unfortunately most of the youngsters are resorting to.
Secondly, the trauma care too needs to be taken up for improvement and the health department needs to explore possibility of developing more trauma centres near accident-prone highways to help accident victims during the crucial golden hours.
Besides, some traffic officials also need to be trained for replicating the effective traffic management models and collaborative efforts with different stakeholders to get the desired results on the ground.
KV Network
