Jamshedpur:’Speed thrill’ takes heavy toll in road accidents

Jamshedpur, April 20: The recent cases of road mishaps involving youths has made it clear that travelling through the city roads has become a risky affair. Two fatalities involving school students have raised concerns of the authorities.  According to information, cases of accidents are on rise and in the first four months of the year 25 people have died in and around the steel city since the beginning of January 1. Two fatal road mishaps which took place in separate places rocked the steel city recently near Sonari aerodrome. “Negligent driving is the main reason for the rise in accidents. Though new vehicles are hitting the roads every day, the infrastructure available is not enough to contain the spurt in the number of vehicles,” said a police official.

He said that speeding is the main reason for mishaps during day time. The rash and competitive driving of private bus drivers also contributes to this. Another police official said that the vehicle population in the district has increased and the road structure has to be improved. Patrolling will be intensified in the coming days and speed traps will be used to monitor speeding vehicles in the daytime. The police have intensified checking for drunk driving. The police will take stringent action against vehicles parked on footpaths.

Despite mass awareness campaigns and enforcement drives, the graph on road traffic accidents stubbornly refuses to come down, going by the statistics of accident victims. A comparison with last year’s data revealed that the number of accident cases treated at MGM Medical College and Hospitals had gone up in all but one of the first few months this year.

“We will see to it that rash-driving is checked with immediate effect, and for this we will look into exactly how many cases related to the road accidents have been registered and if the drivers who are accused of causing the mishap are being convicted,” said a police official.

He revealed that he would make the traffic police officers and also those posted in the police stations across the steel city to ensure that drunk driving is checked completely by pressing the necessary testing equipment immediately after a mishap takes place.

Another senior police officer also pointed out that he was going to curtail the rash-driving by the two-wheelers, especially the youngsters.  He said he would stress whether the investigation into the cases related to the road mishaps were being pursued properly.

The use of substandard helmets by the motorcyclists is on the rise as a number of people could be witnessed on the city roads wearing such helmets and sprinting their bikes, risking their life. They are of the opinion that they use light weight plastic helmets to counter the heat as well as to avoid the traffic violation tickets and not to avoid road accidents.

With traffic police intensifying enforcement of the mandatory helmet rule for two-wheeler riders, use of cheap and substandard headgear has increased several-fold. A number of roadside helmet shops have sprung up across town to meet the increasing demand of such helmets which fall woefully short of Bureau of Indian Standards guidelines.