Bhubaneswar: Faulty road construction, lack of enforcement and loopholes in road construction and maintenance policy are responsible for a large number of road mishaps in the state every year.
According to documents made available by the state government, a whopping 10,532 road accidents were reported in 2016, resulting to loss of 4,463 human lives, while another 5,709 sustained various degrees of injuries.
On the other hand, property worth Rs 26.25 crore was damaged in road accidents in 2016, while 8,483 licences were suspended during the same period.
Data from the office of the Commissionerate Police revealed that a total of 235 accidents were reported in the state capital in 2016. As many as 95 were killed in these mishaps, while another 178 sustained grievous injuries. Neighbouring Cuttack remained relatively safer, as the twin city witnessed 126 road accidents last year. Even the casualties were fewer – 66 people died and 69 were injured.
Road safety experts attributed the high incidents of road mishaps to several loopholes in the road safety norms set up by government. Everything from construction of roads to traffic rules needs a re-think.
“Various issues plague road construction. The guardrails of the bridges here are not strong enough. If a vehicle hits the guard railings of a bridge, they simply dislodge and fall into the river. We also need a special task force to look after road safety measures. Currently, this work has been assigned to police, who already have an exhaustive workload,” said Harman Singh Sidhu, a Chandigarh-based road safety activist, who filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking a ban on liquor shops near national and state highways.
Urban planner Piyush Ranjan is of the view that there are many other factors responsible for increasing road accidents in the state. “Blind turns and portholes are very common on the roads here. Moreover, at many places, the link roads are not connected properly to the highways,” he said.
“In foreign countries, the connecting roads meet the highways tangentially, but here they are perpendicular to the highways. Many accidents are attributed to this single issue,” Ranjan said, adding, “Apart from this, there are many intersections on highways in the state.”
Speaking about the working hours of commercial vehicle drivers, Harman Sidhu said, “In countries like Canada and America, the working hours of the commercial vehicle drivers are specified. In those countries, drivers maintain a log in which they keep noting the durations. Enforcement teams check these logs at regular intervals and if any driver found working for more than the specified limit, they are fined. Unfortunately, we do not have any such checks in India.”
According to a 2015 report of Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH), there were 10542 road accidents in the state, which claimed 4,303 lives and injured 11,825.
Of these casualties, as many as 702 people were killed in 1,704 accidents by commercial vehicles in the state in 2015.
Significantly, the Supreme Court Committee on the Road Safety has also asked the state government to install speed limiters in the commercial vehicles. But the recommendations have been ignored.
Meanwhile, the state government has marked six national highway stretches passing through Orissa as most vulnerable. These stretches or “death traps” include Bhubaneswar-Girisola, Manguli-Balasore, Panikoili-Keonjhar, Manguli-Sambalpur, Sambalpur-Rourkela and Balasore-Jamsola.
Of the 120 black spots identified on national highways, 64 are located on state highways. There are 15 such black spots on the main district roads (MDR), nine are on other district roads (ODR). In addition, one is on urban road.
The government has deployed 37 interceptors to penalise drivers guilty of over-speeding and drunken driving. But these have found to be grossly ineffective.
A comparison of states accounting for 87.2 per cent of persons injured in road accidents during 2015 reveals that Tamil Nadu stood ranks first in the list with a percentage share of 15.9, followed by Karnataka 11.4 per cent and Madhya Pradesh 11.2 per cent. Orissa is positioned slightly better at the 12th spot with 2.4 per cent (11,825 injuries in road accidents).
Overall, 501,423 road accidents occurred across the country in 2015, of which 131,726 (26.3 per cent) were fatal accidents. As many as 146,133 succumbed to these accidents, while 500,279 were injured, MORTH data revealed.
Twin city DCP (Traffic) Mahesh Narayan Bohida attributed most of the road mishaps in the state to recklessness of people towards traffic norms.
“Surprisingly, many people in the state are not aware of lane driving. We have launched a drive to keep heavy vehicles on the left side of the road, but the rules are not being followed. Besides, there are no barriers on either side of the national highways, which should be ideally protected by barriers to stop animals from coming on the roads. In rural areas, this issue is responsible for many accidents,” said Bohida.
Notably, a MORTH report says that 2324 people died in road accidents in rural areas in 2015, while the toll was 1,979 in urban areas of the state.
Kuldeep Singh, OP
