The Udhampur accident has once again brought to the fore the safety factor and concern for traffic rules in the State. This is not the first time that an accident claiming 11 lives has taken place. On an average five to ten people die at various places but when it comes to public carriers the passenger safety is the least concern for the bus operators. Over-loading, over-speeding, chasing one another to pick more passengers, erratic driving and use of mobiles while driving are the daily scene one sees on the road by these operators. But Traffic Police remains a mute spectator for all these violations. What happened in Udhampur accident was no different than earlier accidents. Few months back former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had announced decongestion of two capital cities seeing the growing vehicle population. Instead of visualising such futuristic plans State Government should concentrate on a better traffic management with more and more people involvement. Unless and until it becomes a peoples’ initiative the traffic management is going to remain in chaos. On the other hand the J and K Road Safety Council, which was constituted to act as a guiding force for checking increasing road accidents, has virtually been rendered a ‘useless’ body because of administrative inertia. This can be gauged from the fact that the Council headed by then Chief Secretary, Madhav Lal, was set up way back in September 2012 and the decisions taken in its maiden meeting have still to be brought out from the government closet. The major decisions taken included setting up of Road Accidents Data Management System, appointment of Road Safety Commissioner, conduct of Road Safety Audits of National Highways and other major roads, setting up of Modern Training Institutes and Vehicle Fitness Centers, construction of crash barriers and parapets and deployment of ambulances fitted with advanced life support system at regular intervals on all highways across the State. However, there was no follow up action on almost all these decisions and all have been gathering dust in the official cupboards and those who had the responsibility of translating these decisions into reality never bothered to perform their duty sincerely.
