Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 27: 443 persons have been killed and 2,140 injured in 1,360 road accidents that have occurred on roads in mountainous three districts of the Chenab region since 2012 with the Government admitting lack of proper safety measures on the roads and blaming drivers of driving their vehicles under the influence of liquor.
Minister of Transport Choudhray Mohammad Ramzan informed the Upper House in reply to a written question posed by PDP’s MLC Syed Asgar Ali.
Ramzan said the main reasons for these fatal accidents were negligent, rash driving, driving under the influence of drugs and liquor besides fatigue.
The Minister also said the matrix of the road was also to be blamed for the tragic road accidents.
“Road matrix like sharp curves, lack of parapet walls and crash barriers, pot holes, absence of reflectors on blind curves, absence of speed limit guide stones/ demarcation of speed limit zones,” he said were other reasons for the road accidents.
Giving details of the accidents that have taken place from 2012 to 2014 in the region, Ramzan said 155 accidents have occurred in Doda district in year 2012 in which 53 persons were killed and 351 injured. In 2013, 38 persons were killed and 279 injured in 179 accidents in the district.
And 17 people were killed and 143 injured in 81 road accidents in eight months of the current year, 2014, he said.
The Minister said in Kishtwar 29 persons were killed, 105 injured in 77 accidents in year 2012; 35 were killed, 131 injured in 2013 in 72 accidents and 29 were killed, 47 injured in 2014 upto this month in 32 accidents.
In Ramban district, he said 328 accidents have killed 119 persons, injuring 446 in 2012; 58 people have been killed, 350 injured in 272 accidents that took place in 2013 and 65 people were killed, 288 injured in 164 road accidents upto this month.
He said that the Government has taken several remedial measures to minimize the accidents including ban on issue of fresh permits to minibuses in the hilly districts of erstwhile Doda and Poonch.
Strengthening the procedure for issuance of driving license to drive passenger vehicles, ban on plying of passenger and commercial vehicles aged 25 years and above besides others, he said.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel