In the third road accident during this month on Doda-Bhaderwah road, 9 persons have lost their life and 13 sustained injured when a mini-bus travelling to Bhaderwah plunged into Neeru nullah. The accident happened owing to rash driving by the driver of the mini bus who was trying to overtake other vehicles. The question is that the Administrative Departments in charge of this sector of the Chenab Valley road and traffic control are proving negligent of their duty time and again. Recurring road accidents bring blame to the doorsteps of the traffic control authorities. They cannot absolve themselves of the responsibility of sharing the blame. Traffic authorities have never given out how foolproof is their system of issuing driving licensees. In many cases, those driving the vehicles did not posses genuine licenses and other documents. There is still no dependable system with the traffic authorities to check whether a person is driving in a state of intoxication. As regards rash driving, traffic police has the means and methods of checking rash driving by monitoring at random the speed at which the vehicles are driven. These methods are seldom put to service. Speed breakers at vulnerable places or dangerous turns should be there to control rash driving. It as also been reported in the case under discussion that the Quick Rescue Team (QRT) which the Government claims to have put in place at vulnerable places was nowhere to be seen in the case under discussion. It has been reported that if QRT had arrived in time, at least four or five precious lives could have been saved. Although concerned police stations and their officers did reach the accident spot in time and rendered whatever assistance they could, delayed arrival of QRT is inexcusable. The Government is strongly advised to take serious note of recurring motor accidents on the hilly and mountainous road of Chenab Valley and to find a lasting solution of the problem.
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