Uri residents raise concerns over overloading in vehicles

Baramulla, Feb 2: Eleven years back, 9 civilians onboard a sumo vehicle in Barnate area of Boniyar in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district plunged into a deep gorge, causing death to 9 passengers while 4 others were critically injured.

The incident occurred on Eid day when the passengers were returning after offering prayers. The cause of the accident was overloading as 13 passengers were aboard the passenger cab.

On Thursday, one more passenger cab met the same plight after it plunged into a deep gorge causing death to 10 passengers, while 5 other passengers are battling for their life.

It seems nothing has changed for the people of the hilly areas of Uri area of Baramulla district. Same overloading, rash driving and lack of accountability to the cab operators are causing such road mishaps in these hilly regions.

While the overloading has been the major cause of Wednesday's accident which caused 10 deaths, the locals have also raised the question on why could not safety railing on the road bear the moderate impact of the cab.

Muhammad Sadiq, a resident of Boniyar, said that such safety railings are constructed to ensure that the vehicle will not plunge into the gorge. However, it is possible only if such safety railings are built of high quality and there should not be compromise on quality besides its foundation should be extremely strong, preferably 6 feet deep in the soil.

“In the hilly areas the safety railing on the road is extremely important. However, it has no utility if it is not strong enough to at least bear a moderate impact,” said Sadiq.

A common thread between the 13 years back road mishap at Barnate and Bujthalan accidents which occurred in the hilly area of Boniyar is that besides being overloaded, the front seat row of the passenger cab was occupied by four passengers.

On the driver seat besides the driver one more passenger was sitting, which is extremely dangerous especially in the hilly areas where there are blind curves after every fifty meters.

The department of traffic is already short of field staff and as such it is extremely difficult that their presence can be observed on a daily basis in the remote areas. There is a common feeling among the residents of these areas that the cops should be mandated to seize such vehicles deployed in the hilly areas if found overloaded.

“The vacuum of traffic police in the hilly areas can be filled by the cops of the Jammu and Kashmir police,” said Muhammad Akram, a resident of Boniyar.

“If J&K police will take cognisance of such traffic violations in these areas, it will make a huge difference in terms of stopping the menace of overloading,” added Akram.

The Deputy Commissioner Baramulla, Minga Sherpa, who has been monitoring the situation following the deadly accident at Boniyar on Wednesday conducted several meetings with the stakeholders including the Traffic Police on Thursday. The official said that an inquiry is already underway to ascertain the actual cause of the mishap.

He said the Baramulla district administration along with the Traffic Department besides Jammu and Kashmir police will launch a massive drive against the overloading and ensure that violation of traffic rules is stopped.

“Even today 55 challans were issued against the traffic violation. A combined drive against traffic violations will be started in the coming days. The inquiry into the Boniyar mishap too has been started to look into every aspect so that such mishaps don’t occur in future,” said Deputy Commissioner Baramulla.