It is shocking that people are losing lives to unsafe travel as accidents on roads have become a norm rather than an exception because one finds several news reports of fatal accidents in newspapers on almost daily basis. This is something which needs to be stopped by all means as society cannot afford these avoidable deaths as seven army Jawans lost their life and several others received injuries after the vehicle they were travelling in skidded off the road and fell in Shyok River in Ladakh. The roads in the UTs of J&K and Ladakh have lately turned out to be killer ones despite the modernization and state of art vehicles replacing the old ones having less sophistication. It is sad that three days before, nine commuters were killed in an accident on the Zojila Pass connecting Srinagar with Kargil in central Kashmir. A car carrying passengers was travelling from Kargil to Sonamarg when it skidded off the road and rolled down 400 feet in the night. The bodies of the victims were retrieved from the accident site and identified. Among those killed were visitors from Gujarat, Jharkhand, Punjab and Chhattisgarh. This is really sad that deaths on roads have become unstoppable and people are losing lives unnecessarily. In yesterday’s accident, reportedly, a party of 26 soldiers was moving from the transit camp in Partapur to a forward location in Sub Sector Hanif when the vehicle carrying the soldiers skidded off the road and fell in Shyok river resulting in injuries to all occupants. Seven soldiers succumbed to injuries which is tragic as these lives could have been saved had the driver shown some maturity and have followed the traffic safety rules. There is dire need that people should be given proper training and orientation to drive in places having difficult terrains as Ladakh, Kashmir and even Jammu in J&K and Ladakh UTs do have places where it is quite difficult to navigate on roads due to dangerous twists and turns and other constraints. It is the right time that the government should revisit the policy and try to come out with a solution to improve driving skills of the people or else deaths on roads will become inevitable.
