Safety on roads
Last year we had our media busy covering many road accidents that resulted in loss of lives, particularly in the Jammu division. Those were the occasions when the discussion on road safety and driving rules came into public limelight with a degree of severity. Everyone was concerned about the loss of life in these accidents, and impressed upon the concerned government agencies that our roads are made safe and the factors that result in such accidents were eliminated one by one.
In this backdrop when we go through the news story carried in this newspaper on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025 on the actions taken in rural districts by the traffic staff, it indicates that if persistent action is ensured we can bring down the occurrence of roads accidents significantly.
Quoting SSP Traffic Rural Kashmir the news story says that the road accidents and fatalities are down by as good a margin as 35%. It straight away means that a number of lives were saved by enforcing the regulatory measures. A stricter enforcement of rules against over speeding, rash driving, stunt riding and mobile usage during driving has proved very effective.
Now the question that surfaces up is why can’t this enforcement of rules become so universal, across rural and urban areas, that the rate of road accidents is brought further down? Another pertinent question that can be placed on the table is that why the number of challans should signify the performance of the filed staff? If we have more penalties incurred it means more violations happen. What can be done that the instances of violation come down drastically, and we have better, and safer driving culture?
If the concerned departments and the society at large can together help in building a decent culture of driving we can not only reduce the rate of accidents, and consequent fatalities, we can also save people from stress that they get while driving. This would entail education, awareness campaigns, installation of traffic lights, a scientific use of dividers and crossings, a constant vigil on risk factors on our roads, and of course, an adequate field staff to ensure that no one violates a rule.
