Due to public negligence and failure of the authorities to effectively enforce traffic laws, road accidents are occurring almost daily at various parts of the State. About a dozen people died and more than 10 others were injured in separate road accidents reported from different parts of the State in the last one week.
In one of the mishaps in Tehri, four personnel of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) died and one was injured when their car fell into a deep gorge at Devprayag in Tehri district on the night of March 25. In another mishap, one student died and three others were injured at Didihat in Pithoragarh district on Thursday when the students coming from their school after viewing their annual examination results were hit by a utility vehicle coming from the opposite direction. Thursday.
Earlier, six persons died when the jeep they were travelling in fell into a deep gorge at Jauljivi, Pithoragarh district on March 28. Apart from this, three teachers died and three others were seriously injured when the jeep they were travelling in fell into a deep—gorge at Munsiyari, also in the Pithoragarh district on Thursday.
The Bolero jeep taxi with six passengers had departed for Dummar from Munsiyari. Around nine kilometer away from Munsiyari at Darkot, the driver lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a sharp bend with the jeep falling down a 150 metre deep gorge.
While three persons died, the other three including the driver and an Anganwadi worker were seriously injured. The deceased have been identified as Munsiyari residents- Trilok Bharti (45), head master of Junior High School, Dummar and Puran Singh, assistant teacher at Juha Talla School who died on the spot while Pithoragarh resident Harish Chandra Pathak (48) died in the course of treatment at primary health centre there.
The injured were admitted in local primary health centre and after primary treatment, were referred to higher centres in Haldwani and Pithoragarh.
Observers point out that factors including political interference, lack of public observance of traffic regulations and resource constraints, the regulation of traffic in the State’s mountainous and plain regions has continued to deteriorate at an alarming rate.
Skeptics opine that the various infrastructural developments executed, under process or planned in the State capital and elsewhere in the State will not facilitate the desired benefit until the authorities ensure effective enforcement of traffic regulations and the Motor Vehicles Act among other legal provisions.