TRAFFIC TERROR

1300 dies on roads in 15 months
Traffic Deptt blames poor roads, irrational transport policy

Srinagar: Nearly 1300 people have died and about 10,000 injured in road accidents in Jammu and Kashmir in the past 15 months, belying the government claims of providing efficient transportation system.
According to official data, 1100 people lost their lives in about 5945 accidents in 2009. This is in addition to 8199 persons who sustained injures, critical and minor, in these accidents. From January to March 2010, 197 people have died and 1803 injured in 1357 accidents, putting the number of deaths due to accidents in the past 15 months at 1297.
The data indicates the failure of the Traffic Department, which is supposed to strictly enforce the traffic laws to lessen the number the accidents.
In 2008, 950 people lost their lives and 7597 sustained injures in 5326 traffic accidents in the state. In 2006, the state-wise statistics on road accidents shows that Jammu and Kashmir ranked 13th with 48.2 accidents per lakh population in India. Similarly, in 2005, traffic accidents claimed 884 lives besides injuring 8315 persons in 5664 accidents.
Interestingly, the Traffic Department has clearly acknowledged its failure to minimize road accidents. "There is no let up in the accidents in J&K. If the scenario of road accidents in India is grim, it is gory in J&K," writes the former Inspector General of Police (Traffic), Muhammad Amin Shah, in Trafficinfo 2010, the department’s annual publication.
However, the department claims it was not solely responsible for occurrence of accidents. "It is unfair to hold traffic police solely responsible for the cause of accidents. Other departments working in the traffic management structure too have a definite responsibility to share in avoidance of accidents and increased fatalities," Shah writes, blaming "poor road engineering, irrational transport policy, poor enforcement of laws and lack of mass education" for the mess. According to Shah, the huge deficiency of public transport in rural areas leads to overloading, which becomes a cause of accidents and increased fatalities. "Most of our roads are ill-designed. They lack good geometry. They are environment specific and not traffic oriented," he said. According to Trafficinfo, there has been "unprecedented increase" in fining the traffic violators. "The department has realized an amount of Rs 7,56,31,941 as fine from the violators in 2009," it mentions, urging the drivers not to drive fast, wear crash helmets, wear seat belts, avoid overtaking and driving without license. It has called for revision and rationalization of transport policy, compulsory sale of crash helmets, reviewing of driving license system and deployment of young vehicles to minimize accidents. Pertinently, the vehicular population in Jammu and Kashmir stood at whopping 6, 68,445 by March 2009. This is excluding thousands of vehicles of security forces and the inter-state vehicles, which are not registered in the state. Approximately 50,000 vehicles add up annually to the state motor fleet. In Srinagar city, the vehicular population has increased from 1,23,319 in March 2005 to 1,56, 991 in March 2009, indicating an increase of 27 percent. This population in Jammu city has witnessed an increase from 2,79, 652 vehicles in March 2005 to 3,73,127 vehicles in March 2009, showing an increase of 33 percent.