Jammu has not changed much on the traffic front with chaos and uncertainty on the life of people. Jammu has an uncanny trait of not following the rules and feels it is below dignity of the persona to be obedient on the road. Even though roads are two way people have the tendency to make it one way by even overtaking from the other side of the road and the incoming traffic has to stop. The problem has enlarged in proportion to the population of vehicles on the road. And the machinery to man the traffic has not grown much. The understaffed Traffic Police and lethargy on the duty front has made the system a decayed one with no margins for improvement. Jammu has no scope for improvement in the chaotic traffic conditions. The authorities have been sleeping over and the problem enlarged out of proportion. The worst affected are the patients and the school children caught in the peak hour traffic. The insensitive driver on mobile has ‘no care for others’ attitude will hold anyone for long time than wanted. Most of the roads have become ‘parking lots’ with hardly any space left for other road users, which also leads to unwanted jams. Traffic Safety Week was celebrated from the 11th to 17th January as usual. The week is celebrated every year in order to educate the general public regarding observing safety rules. But, alas no sooner does the week comes to an end, the same sorry state of affairs continues. Many precious lives are lost. Those waiting for their nears and dears, kiths and kins to reach home, get devoured due to the careless and fast driving. There may be other allied reasons for accidents such as narrow roads, bad lighting and inclement weather but the onus lies on drivers and traffic personnel to make roads in Jammu safe for users.
