SHIMLA: Lack of crash barriers along the roads, over-speeding, dangerous driving, turning without care and poor public transport have turned out be the root causes of fatalities in Himachal Pradesh, mainly in rural areas, where 95 per cent of fatalities took place for the last five years.
This has exposed the fact the successive state governments have failed to provide a “safe and secure rural transportation and safe roads for rural people in Himachal Pradesh”.
Most of the road accidents took place in Shimla, Mandi, Chamba and Sirmaur districts that account for 56 per cent of accidents in the last five years, revealed the analysis done by the Himachal Pradesh police.
The Sainj accident in Kullu in which a private bus rolled down the hill on the Shainshar-Sainj road link on Tuesday that killed 13 people. All of them were local villagers, including school students from Jungla and Shainshar villages.
This accident has once again brought the spotlight on these road fatalities in the state so that the government machineries wake up, taking remedial measures to save precious human lives.
The “rolled down” accidents are occurring in the State every now and then killing passengers mainly on the rural roads and kill on an average over 1000 people every year.
The police dissected the data on road fatalities of the five years and concluded that the accidents happen due to lack of “crash barriers” along the roads.
The policing and PWD are caring for better and safe roads and cities for city residents in Himachal, leaving rural villagers to fend for themselves.
In as many as 3020 roll down accidents in the state, over 2633 valuable lives were lost and 6792 persons got injured for the last five years, police analysis found.
Most of the accidents are taking place in Shimla district- 973 (32%), followed by Mandi 425 (14%) and Chamba and Sirmaur at 306 (10%).
Also, the maximum number of fatalities has occurred in district Shimla- 869 (33%), followed by Mandi (331, 13%), Chamba at 284 (11%).
The analysis found that 2881 (95%) roll down accidents have taken place in rural areas of the state.
This, in turn, has exposed the fact that the state government has failed to improve the condition of rural roads, ensuring safe public transport for villagers in Himachal Pradesh.
As far as timings are concerned, these accidents are evenly distributed across the day.
However, the highest number of accidents, 587 (20%) has taken place in between 6 PM to 9 PM.
As many as 1679 (56%) roll down accidents have occurred on the link roads.
Over 1185 (39%) accidents took place on National and State Highways in the state.
The police analysis found that over-speeding in 1264 (42%), dangerous driving in 641 (21%) and turning without care in 609 cases (20% ) are the leading accident causes.
In 1530 (51%) roll down accidents, motor cars were involved followed by pickup or jeep in 592 cases (20%).
As many as 79 buses have rolled down in the last five years, but the police did not give data as to how many people were killed in these buses.
Even condition of HRTC and private buses involved in accidents are no better. They operate khattara buses in rural Himachal mainly in Chopal and Ruhru in Shimla, Chamba and Sirmaur districts, complained the commuters.
Himachal Pradesh has a road length of 38035 kms, whereas crash barriers are installed at only 520 km (1.36%) of total road length.
The fact that the road fatalities are all the more fatal in Himachal due to the steep terrain and deep gorges. This makes erection of crash barriers all the more urgent.
Taking cognizance of Shainshar road accident in Kullu, the DGP Sanjay Kundu has issued directions to the field formations to enhance traffic checking to reduce traffic violations by the drivers.
The details of black spots or clusters or stretches prone to accidents have been shared with HPPWD authorities to install crash barriers.
Also list of 10 vulnerable stretches in each district which immediately require crash barriers have been shared with HPPWD authorities, said the DGP.
