Editorial | Minimising road accidents

Some of the recent road accidents once again bring to fore a problem that needs consistent, and focussed attention. We have been highlighting this problem, and talking about its various facets for many years now. As it pertains to human lives, it must be brought into public domain time and again so that all the stakeholders are sensitised, and the authorities are asked to take concrete steps to solve the problem. We are talking about the safe roads, and safe driving on the roads. The news about road accidents in which human lives are lost is so frequent that one wonders if the statistics in this regard are diligently gathered we might find this as a major cause of death in J&K. How do we interpret this situation. There are three important ingredients in this case that need to be taken up separately. One, the condition of roads.

The road surface, and the width of  the road are important if it has to be safe for driving. The second important ingredient is the traffic management. In this case the concerned departments needs to enhance human resource, as well as take recourse to latest technology. The third important factor is driving. There are many instances of  careless driving that finally resulted into deaths. If all the stakeholders are identified and then a collective initiative is taken, there is no reason we can’t avoid road accidents, and thus save lives. For this, the government must undertake some massive exercise and sensitise people towards their responsibilities.  But before doing that the government should take a look at the condition of roads and identify the reasons for accidents. Rather than doing some patch work, if some serious fault is found in our roads it needs to be addressed forthwith. Similarly the management of traffic, and a serious action against rash and careless driving is needed. On the most busy roads of Srinagar city itself we have many cases of rash driving leading to accidents. After all it is human life that is involved, and everything needs to be done to save lives that are lost to rash driving.

   

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