Friday’s gruesome bus accident at Thelekkad, Malappuram which claimed 13 lives has been a grim reminder of how the roads in God’s Own Country have changed into death traps due to lack of sufficient roads, unscientific design, competition among buses, drunken driving, corruption in bureaucracy, apathy of the police to conduct regular checks, etc.
leaders and top bureaucrats starting with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and State Transports Commissioner Rishiraj Singh are now issuing statements generously on the steps to be taken to ensure safer roads but the people seem to be convinced that these reactions are prompted only by the latest serious accident.
Kerala has witnessed a huge increase in deaths due to road accidents. The number of deaths in road accidents in the State in 2001 was 2,710 but this grew by about 60 per cent to 4,286 in 2012.
Malappuram district alone has witnessed 2,374 accidents till date this year, which means that there were ten mishaps on roads a day on an average. As many as 223 lives have been lost in these accidents. The worst road tragedy of the State had occurred in Malappuram district in 2001 when a speeding bus overturned and caught fire charring 42 passengers to death.
In a State where even anything could get linked with politics, allegations have come up to the effect that one of the major reasons for the spurt in road accidents, especially in the past three years, is a duty paralysis that has affected the police and the Motor Vehicles Department with respect to carrying out regular road-checks and awareness campaigns.
Traffic experts say that one of the main reasons for the alarming recurrence of accidents on the State’s roads is the lack of road development as per the requirement brought about by the spurt in the number of vehicles. “Number of vehicles had doubled since 2005 but roads have not developed accordingly,” says traffic rule awareness campaigner CT Rajan.
Incidentally, the Thelekkad accident occurred just a day after Congress legislator AP Abdullakutty, a fan of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in development matters, termed as “plain idiocy” the decision to fix the width of National Highways in Kerala as 30 metres instead of the nationally accepted norm of 60 metres.
On Friday, Traffic Commissioner Rishiraj Singh said that permits of buses without speed governors would be cancelled despite the protests from bus owners. Extensive inspections were carried out by the traffic police and Motor Vehicles Department which led to cancellation of permits of several buses.
Alleging that the authorities were harassing them by charging them with violation of rules in the context of the Malappuram accident, private bus operators suspended their services in Kasaragod and Thrissur districts on Saturday. “We haven’t been given even a notice. Why should we pay for the officials’ mistakesIJ” asked a bus owner at Chalakkudy, Thrissur.
Experts are of the opinion that maxing drinking and driving is the biggest hazard roads are facing in Kerala which tops in per-capita alcohol consumption in the country and the police are accused of showing apathy in dealing with this problem. Experts are now proposing to introduce compulsory Yoga sessions for drivers before they are allowed to drive buses.