Road accident in Aligarh, bus-truck collided on Yamuna Expressway, 5 killed, more than 15 injured. While shifting a patient from one ambulance to another, a dumper collided with it on the Pali-Jodhpur highway in Rajasthan, four died. Two medical students of Jamia Hamdard University died in a tragic road accident on Delhi’s Signature Bridge. Two including an old woman died in two separate road accidents in Lucknow. Six students died in a road accident on November 12 in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Many such road accidents have happened in the last two-three days. In fact, walking on the streets of India is now becoming like walking with one’s life in hand. These killer road accidents are serious and challenging. The most unfortunate thing is that innocent people die in such accidents. A scary data from the Union Road Transport Ministry, which reveals the reality of these murderous and bloody roads of the country, came to light recently. According to the ministry, 15 lakh people died in road accidents in the last ten years. More or less, such incidents are heard in the entire country in which hundreds of people lose their lives every day.
India’s road transport, despite all the development achievements and efforts, remains unsafe and deadly; the bloody and accident-prone roads of convenience are witnessing new tragedies every day. Road accidents have been one of the leading causes of deaths and injuries in India. The seriousness of the situation can be gauged from the fact that about three to five percent of India’s GDP is spent on road accidents. Death or injury in road traffic is one of the biggest problems not only in India but in the world. According to the World Health Organization, every year more than 13 lakh people die in road accidents. Latest data shows that the rate of deaths every ten thousand kilometers in the country is 250, while in America, China and Australia this number is 57, 119 and 11. Certainly this figure of deaths in road accidents in India shakes a sensitive person. Most deaths in road accidents occur in India.
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Strict adherence to transport rules is necessary, merely issuing challan is not the solution to the problem. 30 percent of driving licenses in the country are fake. There is huge corruption in the transport sector, hence buses are not even maintained properly. The lives of those sitting in them are at stake. There is a need to implement uniform standards in the maintenance of buses, their operation, qualification of drivers and other matters across the country, only then the citizens of the country will be able to travel from one state to another without any worries. People who drive at high speed definitely read the sentence written on the roadside board, ‘It is better to delay than an accident’, but delay is not acceptable to them, even if an accident happens. A study focused on this issue in the world’s famous magazine ‘The Lancet’ states that by improving road safety measures in India, the lives of more than thirty thousand people can be saved every year. According to the study, the main causes of bloody roads and tragic accidents are idling or speeding of vehicles, drunk driving, not wearing a helmet and not using seat belts.
Even though the Central and State Governments call every road accident unfortunate, express sorrow over it and even announce compensation, the big question is why serious and effective measures have not been taken till now to prevent accidents? Whatever be the case, the question is that for how long will people’s life remain so cheap on such high-speed roads? The truth is also that road transport in the entire country is a victim of huge chaos. The transport department is among the most corrupt departments. In India, 1,68,491 people died in road accidents in the year 2022. At the same time, in the year 2023, about 1,73,000 people died in road accidents. That means, in the year 2023, an average of 474 people died every day. Such information from the Transport Ministry is both shocking and shameful. These tragic figures have once again forced one to think whether modern and well-equipped roads are necessary only for speed and convenience or whether the safety of traveling on them should be ensured first. About 16 crore vehicles were registered in the year 2012, which has doubled in the last decade. But the roads did not increase in that proportion. While in the year 2012, the length of Indian roads in the country was 48.6 lakh kilometers, in the year 2019 it reached 63.3 lakh kilometers.
Yamuna Expressway tops the list of bloody roads. When will the deadly road accidents on this stop? This question is because the number of accidents occurring on it and the number of people dying and getting injured are continuously increasing. Not only this, other roads of the country are swallowing humans in the same way and making them swallow the air of death. These cannot be ignored. The death of people in road accidents shows how dangerous the roads of our country have become. The big question is then why measures are not being taken to prevent road accidents? The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, with the cooperation of the people, wants to reduce road accidents by 50 percent by the year 2025, but this work is possible only when concrete steps are also taken to address the root causes of road accidents. In view of the shortage of skilled drivers, preparing to open driver training schools in rural and backward areas is a step in the right direction, but much more needs to be done. There is a big irony related to our traffic police and their responsibilities that any traffic police officer does the work of issuing challans with great dedication and dedication, and even more so, he does the work of taking bribes with full responsibility, all the corruption and bribery of the Prime Minister. This department of opposing statements and resolutions collects bribes indiscriminately, but it does not appear that any officer has given any training or lessons to those who violate traffic rules. This situation is the biggest reason for the increase in accidents.
There is a need to remove encroachment on the roadside, and also to prevent the entry and roaming of stray animals. Both these situations cause road accidents. It also needs to be understood that all kinds of unhindered traffic through roadside villages also increases the risk. Everyone is aware of this situation, but such measures are not being taken so that at least the highways are protected from encroachment and unruly traffic. It is doubtful that problems like driving in the opposite direction, ignoring lanes and overtaking can be solved only by running road awareness campaigns. It is a matter of serious concern that reckless driving on the roads is a matter of fun and fashion for some people, but what kind of fun or fashion is this which destroys many lives. It is tragic that the dark shadow of insensitivity has spread among the common man regarding such accidents and an even bigger tragedy is the blindfolding of the government. In every situation, human life is at stake. What is the end to the brutal challenges of these increasing accidents?
– Lalit Garg
Writer, Journalist, Columnist
