Alarming increase of road accidents

It is reported in a section of the press that on the very first day of the New Year the number of road accidents in Assam was 214. We have noted with concern that the road accidents in Assam are increasing alarmingly. It is noteworthy that the Centre has introduced certain tough traffic rules violation of which invites heavy penalty. Meanwhile, a good amount has been realized by way of penalty from the erring drivers of two wheelers, three wheelers and four wheelers that enriched the state exchequer substantially. Rash-driving is the cause of most of the accidents. It seems, our police force, particularly the traffic police, fails to intercept such speeding cars, despite provisions of heavy penalty in case of violation of traffic rules. The drivers resort to speed-driving with impunity. Driving by consuming liquor is another case. Instead of intercepting these drivers on festive period, it would do well for the police to arrange for detecting such drivers with breath analyser consistently. Again in many accidents it is seen that the speeding two/four wheelers collide with stationary trucks/ cars that results into number of death. Why are trucks allowed to be parked on road side, we cannot understand? In Dibrugarh we could see some perverted youths use these trucks/buses parked near government Girls’ HS School (Amolapaty) as shades to consume wine, particularly at night time. The local police maintain a look to the other-side policy for reasons best known to them. Summing up, we should say that these unauthorized parking of trucks/ buses by the side of the roads must be stopped if the police want to minimize the number of road accidents.

Ashok Bordoloi,

Dibrugarh