Tamil Nadu has become the capital of road accidents in the country. Roads in Chennai have turned into killing fields and this has made the National Human Rights Commission to issue notices to chief secretary and director general of police asking them to furnish details of road accidents in the State within four weeks. The NHRC is of the view that the frequent road accidents in Tamil Nadu are a fall out of the callous and sheer insensitive attitude of Transport Department, Police and the Metro Water.
What made the NHRC to take a stern stand in this issue was the gruesome death of three young college girls in Chennai on Thursday. A rogue tanker lorry crushed to death Chitra, Gayatri and Asha Shruthi , students of Chellammal Women’s College, Guindy, who were walking along the side pavement to catch bus to go home.
The driver, who escaped from the accident site, later surrendered in front of the police. All the three girl were from poor families and had hopes of taking up jobs after graduation to help their parents.
Water tanker lorries have become a nightmare for pedestrians and two-wheeler riders. According to a release issued by the NHRC, the Commission has taken suo motu cognizance of media report that three college girls died and four got injured in a road accident caused by a Metro water Tanker lorry. “This was not the only accident caused by a water tanker lorry as the provision of cancelling driving licenses in case of accidents under the Motor Vehicles Act are not strictly being implemented by the authorities in the State,” said the release.
“It is the failure of the State Transport Authority to implement and enforce the rules and regulations, as also the apathy of police officials and other administrative officers that results in exposing the innocent citizens to all kinds of risks on road. The safety of citizens should be the primary concern of the government. The State Government cannot escape its obligation to protect the lives of its citizens from such preventable gruesome mishaps,” the NHRC release stated,
According to the 2016 report by Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Tamil Nadu is the accident capital of India. The State saw 15,642 deaths due to rod accidents in 2015, out of which 886 were in Chennai city alone. The report said that 1300 persons die on an average every month in road accidents in the State.
“Those coming to Chennai and Tamil Nadu should be extra cautious while they are on the roads. Saturday morning saw three students belonging to the SRM University getting killed in a road accident while they were on their way to have morning coffee. Incidentally, the day turned out to be the convocation day in the University owed by T R Pachamuthu, who is out on bail in a cheating case.