Making roads safer

The new Punjab Cabinet at its first meeting gave approval to the setting up of a road safety authority. It should be reason to see hope in the otherwise grim scenario of more than 13 people dying on the state’s roads every day. But the past experience makes one skeptical about a meaningful change on the ground. There has been a road safety council; dangerous spots on roads have been identified, and efforts made to put together and provide data on accidents. Yet, most of these initiatives were abandoned midway or not followed up with necessary action. Road safety, unfortunately, has never been a political issue, and therefore low on the government’s radar.

The biggest improvements in road safety, of course, are predicated on certain fundamental infrastructure development, such as roads with double carriageways. That is evident from the fact that more fatal accidents happen on small rural roads despite lower traffic. Nonetheless, there are road engineering, traffic management, and policing initiatives that can be taken to reduce the loss till we are fully “developed”. Much of this can be achieved through common-sense executive efforts, without waiting for the proposed authority, which is expected to study causes of accidents. A lot could be achieved if the Chief Minister were to just tell the district administrative and police chiefs, besides the public works heads, that he expects to see a drop in fatalities in their respective areas within a stipulated time.

Two categories of vehicles involved in accidents require specific attention, two-wheelers and agriculture machinery, especially tractor-trailers. Two-wheelers are often used by the rural population for inter-city travel. This has directly to do with the quality of public transport available. While a review of the bus business is on, this aspect may be kept in mind. Farm transport on roads is the biggest threat (20% of the accidents) essentially because no rules are applied or implemented. Dealing with this sector, however, will require not just administrative but political will. Meanwhile, all concerned would do well to remember, it is human lives we are talking about.