Saturday, 12 Oct, 2024
The accident in Jammu & Kashmir has once again highlighted the rising number of road accidents in the country. Image Source: IANS
At least 17 weak spots along the vital Jammu-Srinagar national highway need immediate repairs to guarantee smooth traffic movement
A bus rolled down in a deep gorge near the Tanda Morh on the Jammu Poonch Highway in the Akhnoor district, resulting in at least 21 deaths and over 60 injuries. An official stated that a rescue operation was started shortly after the tragedy. The bus was coming from Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras. Meanwhile, the injured have been shifted to the Akhnoor hospital.
President Droupadi Murmu expressed her sincere condolences to the families of those killed in the accident. Taking to X, she said, “Pained beyond words to learn about the loss of lives in a bus accident in Akhnoor near Jammu. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families. I wish speedy recovery of the injured.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed his anguish for the loss of lives due to the bus mishap in Akhnoor. He also announced Rs 2 Lakh for the next of kin of each deceased.
Police and residents have initiated a rescue operation, and the injured have been sent to hospitals in Jammu and Akhnoor, including Government Medical College (GMC) hospital. According to a top official on Wednesday, at least 17 weak spots along the vital Jammu-Srinagar national highway need immediate repairs to guarantee smooth traffic movement, with an emphasis on the approaching Amarnath Yatra.
During the ongoing four-laning project, a high-level team of authorities visited the 270-km national highway on Tuesday, the sole all-weather route connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country, to find the bottlenecks obstructing traffic flow. June 29 marks the beginning of the 52-day yearly pilgrimage to the 3,880-meter-high cave shrine of Amarnath in the Himalayas in south Kashmir.
The accident in Jammu & Kashmir has once again highlighted the rising number of road accidents in the country. As compared to 2020, the number of road accidents rose by 17 percent in 2021, showing a rise in the rate of deaths per 1,000 vehicles in India. During the previous year 2020, country saw an unprecedented decrease in accidents, fatalities and injuries. This was due to the unusual outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and resultant stringent nation-wide lockdown particularly during March-April, 2020 followed by gradual unlocking and phasing out of the containment measures.
Source: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
In 2022, a total of 4,61,312 road accidents have been reported by States and Union Territories, which claimed 1,68,491 lives and caused injuries to 4,43,366 persons. This marks an increase of 11.9 percent in accidents, 9.4 percent in fatalities, and 15.3 percent in injuries compared to the previous year.
During 2022, a total of 4,61,312 accidents were recorded in the country, of which, 1,51,997 (32.9 percent) took place on the National Highways (NH) including Expressways, 1,06,682 (23.1 percent) on State Highways (SH) and the remaining 2,02,633 (43.9 percent) on Other Roads. Out of the total of 1,68,491 fatalities reported in 2022, 61,038 (36.2 percent) were on National Highways, 41,012 (24.3 percent) were on State Highways and 66,441 (39.4 percent) were on Other Roads. Out of the total, 1,55,781 fatal accidents reported in 2022, 55,571 (35.7 percent) were on National Highways, 37,861 (24.3 percent) were on State Highways and 62,349 (40 percent) were on Other Roads.
During 2021 a total of 4,12,432 accidents were recorded, of which 1,42,163 (34.5 percent) were fatal accidents, 2,46,027 (59.7 percent) were injury (minor and grievous) causing accidents. Among injury causing accidents, 1,26,394 (30.6 percent) were grievous and 1,19,633 (29 percent) were minor injury causing accidents
Two-wheelers were involved in the most fatal road accidents in 2021 (69,240 fatalities), making up 44.5 percent of all deaths on the road, followed by cars (23,531 fatalities; 15.1 percent) and trucks/lorries (14,622 fatalities; 9.4 percent). The majority of two-wheeler-related killings were reported in Tamil Nadu (8,259 fatalities) and Uttar Pradesh (7,429 fatalities), accounting for 11.9 percent and 10.3 percent of all two-wheeler-related fatalities, respectively. However, there were a lot fewer accidents in 2021 as compared to 2019, when there were 4.37 lakh reported accidents and 1.54 lakh fatalities.
Two-wheelers (58,129 fatalities) contributed 43.6 percent of all fatal road accidents in 2020, followed by cars (17,538 fatalities) (13.2 percent) and trucks/lorries (16,993 fatalities) (12.8 percent). Between 2020 and 2021, Tamil Nadu reported the highest increase in the number of traffic accident cases (from 46,443 to 57,090), followed by Madhya Pradesh (from 43,360 to 49,493) and Uttar Pradesh (from 30,593 to 36,509). In 2018, around 1,52,780 people lost their lives in road accidents, out of 4,45,500 lakh accidents were reported.
Amongst the States, Tamil Nadu with 64,105 accidents (13.9 percent) recorded the highest number of road accidents in 2022 followed by Madhya Pradesh (54,432 i.e., 11.8 percent). Uttar Pradesh (22,595 i.e., 13.4 percent) topped the States in respect of the number of fatalities due to road accidents followed by Tamil Nadu (17,884 i.e., 10.6 percent).
The government has been taking several steps to prevent the road accidents. One of the steps was an amendment in the Motor Vehicle Act in 2019. The Motor Vehicle Amendment Act, 2019 hikes the penalties for traffic violations, defective vehicles, juvenile driving, etc. It calls for the creation of a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, which would require all Indian road users to carry insurance coverage for certain types of accidents.
In spite of certain measures and steps taken by the government to prevent accidents, the number of road accidents in India continue to rise every year claiming more and more number of lives.
