A study by the Indian Council of Medical Research last year had revealed that Jammu and Kashmir topped the list of deaths and disabilities caused by road accidents, devouring more young lives than any disease.
The study had shown that in terms of percentage share, accidents and violence accounted for 41 percent deaths in the age group of 15-39, while all diseases combined accounted for rest of the deaths.
According to senior doctors working in tertiary-care hospitals of Kashmir, where most of the injured received treatment, the injuries due to these accidents also end up with lifelong disabilities.
Alarmed by the findings, state authorities had assured putting in place mechanisms to decrease the number of road accidents.
But the latest data compiled by the state road transport department shows that little has changed on the ground.
According to figures compiled by the J&K road safety council, 908 people died in road accidents in J&K during 11 months of 2018 while 7250 people were injured in 5529 accidents.
The large incidence of deaths and injuries due to accidents is not a new phenomenon in J&K.
A National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) survey conducted in 2013 found that an accident in J&K has a 64 percent chance of causing death as compared to 36.4 percent at the national level.
Doctors in Kashmir hospitals believe that authorities have done little to reduce deaths and disabilities caused by accidents.
The 17 trauma centers the government had announced would be established up along the highways in 2012 to provide immediate intervention in case of road accidents have proved to be a waste of funds, a senior healthcare official said.
None of these trauma centers is fully functional.
The official said that government neither ensured infrastructure development of these centers, nor equipped these with requisite manpower.
The state government has also failed to ensure the critical care ambulances, that were planned to flank these trauma centers and help in saving lives with safe and fast transport of injured. Also, official records show that state has dismally failed to work on starting the 102 helpline service that could have aided in saving lives in case of accidents.
In early 2018, the state government had directed deputy commissioners to formulate a plan for their respective districts to reduce number of accidents. However, an official said that the order has not been executed and across all districts of J&K, accidents continue to increase and take lives.
In 2015, the government had set up an agency to chalk out a plan to reduce the number of accidents and create coordination between various departments that could have helped in saving lives. However, an official in the government said that the agency has failed to work on its mandate.