Following Traffic Rules Will Make Road Travel Safe

Rajesh Sharma

(The writer is based at Shimla)

Increasing road accidents in Himachal Pradesh has given every daily commuter a reason to worry. According to a survey by the state police department, road accidents claim about 12 lives daily on an average. According to an estimate about 100 persons lose life while about 5000 are left injured in about 3000 road accidents reported on an average in this hilly state every year. The hill state recorded 2096 road accidents in 2016 that were much more as compared to previous years. About 780 people were killed while 3919 were left injured in these road accidents. These road accidents, that makes headlines of newspaper, are forgotten after some time. But what about the families and relatives of the persons who lost life in these road accidents? When will our government, administration and public will become cautious about traffic rules? When will we put curb on these ever increasing road accidents?

We seriously need to ponder over the issue as to when will our government initiate concrete steps in this direction. We have increased length and width of our roads, but still they are the major reason behind road accidents. Majority of the roads constructed in Himachal are of poor quality. In fact some of the roads are in worst condition even than kuccha roads. The metalled roads don’t meets the established parameters. Public Works Department’s job has reduced to a department of allocating road contracts. Our contractors usurp budget for road construction by just putting a thin layer of coal tar. As a result the newly metalled road turn into pot holed ones within a month. The government does not muster enough courage to develop such infrastructure that could monitor the quality of roads construction.

The condition so deteriorated as of today that we do not have traffic signals on crossroads,  missing zebra crossings for pedestrians and missing speed breakers near schools and colleges. To add to the misery is the fact that violating traffic norms has become a trend. The allocation of driving licenses to even ineligible drivers is another reason behind road accidents. Many people get driving license through corrupt means but does not have any knowledge of traffic norms and rules. Such untrained and unaware drivers later becomes reason of road accidents. Lack of speed limit instructions by roadside in Himachal also adds to the list of major reasons behind road accidents.  There is also a need to continuous and periodic maintenance and monitoring of condition of roads, as this is the biggest reason behind road accidents. Besides this, a check on overloading will also bring down the figure of road accidents. Religious following of traffic rules by everyone will reduce the fear of accident to minimum and commuters can enjoy their travel without any fear.

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