In Doda, Kishtwar dists, road accidents claim 334 lives in 5 years

Ranjit Thakur

Jammu, November 14

Around 334 persons have been killed and 1,906 injured in road accidents in mountainous Doda and Kishtwar districts in the past five years, belying claims of the successive governments of effective traffic management and better roads.

Dilapidated roads, poor traffic management, reckless driving, lack of cross barriers and chronic problem of overloading are cited as the causes of the accidents, but the authorities have hardly done anything to address the issues.

“At least 334 persons have been killed and 1,906 injured in road accidents in the two districts since 2015 and since January this year the number of people killed in Doda and Kishtwar alone crossed 100, indicating a sharp increase in fatalities,” reveals official data maintained by the traffic police.

As per the data, in 2015, 20 persons were killed and 239 injured in Doda whereas in Kishtwar, 23 were killed and 78 injured. The figure rose in 2016 as 34 persons were killed and 347 injured in Doda and 21 were killed and 85 injured in Kishtwar.

In 2017, 49 persons were killed and 274 injured in Doda, whereas 15 persons were killed and 97 injured in Kishtwar. As many as 39 persons were killed and 130 injured in Kishtwar, whereas 28 persons were killed and 330 injured in Doda in 2018. From January 2019 to November 13, 56 persons lost their lives in mountainous Kishtwar, whereas in Doda 46 persons were killed and over 300 persons injured in road accidents.

Residents have been accusing the administration of being apathetic towards poor road conditions and traffic management as these are being considered the major causes for frequent road accidents in the mountainous region.

The SSP, Doda, Mumtaz Ahmed, said, “The terrain of Doda and Kishtwar is very tough and there are multiple reasons of accidents. Poor road conditions, overloading of vehicles, usage of mobile phones while driving, lack of crash barriers and usage of old and rusted vehicles are the root causes of mishaps,”

“In last one year, the district police have challan over 10,000 vehicles and collected a huge amount, but we have failed to curb the root cause as the same vehicles are plying on roads. The shortage of vehicles and their poor conditions due to lack of service stations in these regions are increasing the road accidents. If the government uses SRTC vehicle on these routes it will definitely help reduce the number of accidents.” the officer said.

Doda and Kishtwar districts have just one traffic DSP, two DTIs and around 50 traffic officials, most of them are SPOs, to maintain the traffic on the national highway and link roads, which is quite a tough job.