SHOCKING

 

 

 

THAT as many as 19 persons got killed in road accidents in one hour on average across the country in 2022, should shock anybody out of wits. The statistics released by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways also indicate that the country witnessed an alarming increase of at least 12 % in road accidents in that year. These figures indicate that roads in India are an unsafe proposition posing grave risks to the user-public no matter the mode of transport. This means, urgent and scientific steps are needed to be taken so that our roads and highways start witnessing decreasing numbers of accidents. In other words, the country needs a national campaign to make roads and highways safer for users. This is certainly a serious concern -- safety on roads. When the Government is engaged in a massive nationwide infrastructure-development programme -- in which roads and highways forms a major segment -- the need to ensure that roads remain safe from accidents becomes a primary undertaking for the whole country. Looking at the enormity of the issue at hand, the task of making roads and highways safer is full of challenges that may daunt the weak-minded. No matter the high degree of difficulty, the nation must commit itself to making roads safer -- and that too urgently.

 

Union Minister of Surface Transport and Highways Mr. Nitin Gadkari has been voicing serious concern over this matter for long. In a moment of exasperation, he even went to the extent of admitting failure to curb accidents owing to several factors. Mr. Gadkari has suggested several approaches to sorting out the problem but also has admitted only a limited success in the endeavour. This exasperation of the Minister points to the fact that the task of making roads and highways increasingly safer is truly onerous. Road-users often come across signs by road-side reminding them that the mind’s brake is the best brake. The message is simple: The road-using public must keep their minds on an ever alert mode and so that they have quick reflexes to apply brakes or not drive or ride too fast. Somehow, such messaging has had only a limited effect and the numbers of accidents on roads -- including fatal ones -- have only gone up from year to year. The case of the newly-built Samruddhi Mahamarg between Mumbai and Nagpur is one classic example of a terrible mix of bad road engineering, thoughtless design and human failure in ever increasing proportion. After witnessing shockingly high numbers of fatal accidents that claimed so many lives, the Government has now undertaken some half-baked measures to curb mishaps.

 

Those measures have shown no positive results at least until now, such as ripple-speed breakers, or attempt to break monotony while driving by adding isles of coloured flags by road-side ... ! Yet, accidents have continued to take place on the Samruddhi Mahamarg claiming people’s lives. That is so because there are fundamental flaws in the narrative the Government proposes so enthusiastically as part of its promotion of high-speed driving that has become a norm on modern highways these days. Standing in the Parliament to give elaborate speeches, Surface Transport Minister Mr. Gadkari himself keeps highlighting how one can reach certain place from the national capital in just two hours or three hours. These statistics do sound charming, all right, but are actually thoughtless enticements to road-using public. This narrative will have to be sobered down thoughtfully -- so that the human component becomes more careful while using modern roads and highways. That may be one way to reduce mishaps on roads.