Zahoor Ragi
Road Traffic Accidents have proved important cause of morbidity, mortality and disability both among developing and developed countries globally. Though human values & peaceful measures like improving the roads, enhancing skills of driving by training & above all educating about various issues and measures to avoid road traffic accidents has been taken care of but still much is needed to take corrective measures.
RTAs have been defined as,” Any accident taking place on the road between two or more objects ; in which one is any kind of moving vehicle and the other a human being”.
Social Scientist , Amorist defines RTA as *Accidental clubbing of irregularities of careless / overconfident driving & indifferent human race on the roads resulting into injuries, bloodshed , deaths & increase in disabilities of human existence due to lack of coordination among various departments involved in systematic management & implementation of safety for one & all under rules*.
Thousands of people die on the world’s roads every day because of the irregularities in driving skill or otherwise. Road crashes have been analyzed as second leading cause of death globally among young people aged 5-29 and the third leading cause of death among people aged 30-44 years. Over all analysis of road crashes kill 1.2 million people every year and injure or disable as many as 50 million or more.
Countries are passing through significant urbanization, motorization, industrialization & changes in the socio-economic values of societies but commonly affected road users are pedestrians, passengers, motor cyclists and cyclists as opposed to drivers who are involved in most of deaths & disabilities. This heavy burden at such an early age has long term implications on the quality of life & socioeconomic growth of nations. Our state also falls prey of road traffic accidents every day, every year and leave so many disabled with mental agony. Many deaths too take place.
Increase in day to day road traffic accidents needs co-ordination among stakeholders. A character that can live in others by offering life tips to people at large. Many NGOs even have been helping out to educate public at large and driving force in particular but it still remains a question mark on the face of our society and character. Such efforts within our community work only for nine days and things take U-turn towards unjustified character again.
Topography of the various regions of Jammu & Kashmir State though visible on the ground has not yet been designed & maintained to safe guard the lives on the land where thousands cry ,thousands die due to lack of coordination & lack of safety measures. With current phenomenal increase in number of vehicles (both private and public), limited expansion of roads and irregular roads, Kashmir valley is witnessing lot of road traffic accidents.
Unwarranted and unnecessary driving licenses issued at the door steps and errant drivers with rash driving skills need to be checked at various levels. Encouraging drastic actions against defaulters is the need of the hour because the magnitude, determinants and risk factors are available with every eye but the eye that has to click needs systemized camera of higher ups to visualize grass root level happenings.
People at large have to correct the system but appropriate authorities in particular have to enforce legal war against defaulters and defaulters have to upgrade character to ensure abiding by laws and safeguard lives to sustain peace within their conscience. The concerned authorities should take opportunity to educate public by way of holding seminars /workshops in order to have result oriented social behavioral changes with the community set ups in open public places as otherwise such seminars/workshops do not yield social behaviour change with chosen audience.
But unfolded speed limit yet remains within folds and needs immediate attention of authorities to crackdown defaulters who take lives and paste disabilities on the social structure. Rise in Road Traffic Accidents of course is in rage but with calmness is measuring conscious authorities to minimize mortality, morbidity and disability to sustain their lives in the shape of their future generations. Otherwise they die out of their own corrupted practices visualizing every death as unseen or hear to tune unheard but face at home the worst and leave survival unserved.
In a recent project of awareness, the traffic police in collaboration with the Burn Hall School intended to enhance the capabilities of students to know the subject and to practice their life attitudes in order to develop society with their small contributions.
Since the students are supposed to be informed about their activities to regulate their attitudes to define a concern for the society and bring a considerable change of the mind set ups of the public especially drivers, the traffic police tried to utilize the knowledgeable practical attitudes of the students, which of course every walk of life has admired. Such activities have to be the part and parcel for regulating life even as a whole. Salutes to the Traffic authorities and BHS authorities to judge the need and acknowledge responsibilities.
During the course of regulatory moments, a student while taking an opportunity to request the driving personnel to use seat belt and of course to use the lane system, the person was so nice he encouraged the student by saying, *I will do it because of your smile, keep smile preserved*. Encouraging factors on both ends really meant development of characteristics which actually has to be the gesture of human beings.
Waving hands towards the matador driver to be on side, the driver shouted out of his dead conscience, how much you are being paid for regulating traffic. The discouraging moment but the smiling child Murtaza kept pace with his already encouraged smiling gesture. The time was full of gathering information about the populace attitudinal tendencies. This led to outcome of one word while discussing with parents, the attitudinal tendencies faced today are as a result of non-professionalism within traffic and ill health of the components of societies. Parents were shocked to hear such a version from their smiling son whose mood little was swayed.
The traffic department has to be separate department to develop professionalism and regulatory characters to develop traffic regulatory potential at every level. The inter or intra changes of police personnel deputed from regular police to traffic has to be dejected as the crime dealt attitudes cannot sustain while dealing with public affairs on the road side.
This inter or intra reputational practices lead to disasters those are not being either imagined or not being given a due thought to evolve a strategy how to go with the affairs of perceptional crisis or behavioural tendencies those do not suit to the given situations while in uniform. Police practices irrespective of few, who own unprofessionalism of corrupt choices being depicted on social media or otherwise, can do wonders to bring visible changes on the ground.
If the Traffic Department is created as Independent Department, the day is not far when visible changes on the ground shall be improvised to minimize road traffic accidents by evolving strategy of developing professional personnel to serve for a particular field of choice. Let us hope the independence day of traffic department shall be created sooner or later to regulate the moving capable brains on the road side to desist from unprofessionalism and rule the land with laws those make every soul to smile to judge life at ease.
