The road accidents have been the biggest life claimers and Jammu and Kashmir where no rules and safety regulations are followed whether on the road or using a public transport the causality rate is no exception. As far as causes of all the road accidents are concerned, majority of them can be attributed to human fault where operators give no consideration for safety of human lives. Loaded like animals rickety vehicles transverse mountain roads at such dangerous proportion one can only imagine the end results. Not a single day passes without any mention of an accident on the State roads. The recent accident in Reasi claiming more than eight lives and leaving many injured is the testimony of how the operators are flouting the norms with impunity. The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, keeping in view of the trend of road accidents, had asked the Jammu and Kashmir Government to set up State Road Safety Council and District Road Safety Committees to address the issue of road safety, education of vehicle operators, enforcement, engineering (roads as well as vehicles) and emergency care. Though Road Safety Council was formed during the tenure of Madhav Lal as Chief Secretary of the State but the fate of the council remains a mystery till date with District Road Safety Committees yet to come into existence. Though every year road safety week is organised in a ritualistic manner the State Road Safety Policy remains a distant dream. Nearly, 5,000 persons were reportedly killed in over 2,000 road accidents in the division. These accidents bring to fore many points which need to be answered. First, the government machinery has not woken up even after these accident. After every accidents, people are assured that steps will be taken to improve the condition of roads, more buses will be pressed into service, old buses, matadors will be phased out. But nothing substantial has been done as is evident from this accident. People on the other hand forget the past. They board overloaded buses, matadors despite knowing fully that it could be dangerous. Unless people themselves learn from the mistakes, we will have to live with the tragedies which are going to occur claiming more lives on road.
