Saraikela Roads: Where death lurks unlimitedly

Mail News Service

Saraikela, June 20: Grievous injuries and a plethora of road accident deaths dominate Saraikela-Kharsawan news every day. Leaving home, one never knows if he or she will be back unscathed by injuries or be taken for autopsy. That is the crux of a nerve-shattering ‘hallmark’ of a story on Saraikela roads where death lurks unlimitedly 24×7, making a mockery of the best and sincere efforts of district and police administrations.

No one exactly knows since when the Saraikela-Kharsawan district roads became veritable death traps and none cares to find out either, perhaps because accidents on these roads have become parts and parcels of routine life. That is the horrendous reality of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

These killer routes include Chauka-Kandra, Saraikela-Tata, Saraikela-Chaibasa, Saraikela-Kharsawan and Saraikela-Rajnagar main roads. A census on road mishaps along these main routes include 268 accidents during the period January 2021-May ’22 when 228 persons lost their lives while 163 suffered  grievous injuries. In fact, during June thus far, similar ghastly accidents of injuries and deaths carry on unchecked. In these intervening 17 months, more than 200  lives have been lost to make the grim figures grimmer. Most of these killer road mishaps have been recorded on the Tata-Kandra- Saraikela and  Chauka-Kandra-Saraikela routes.  Unless improved traffic norms are implemented, deaths and injuries on these routes will continue to happen unabated.

There was a time when the Saraikela-Kendra road was in a shambles and accidents used to occur and lives lost. During that period, accidents were attributed to dilapidated road conditions. This led local residents to take to the path of agitation that continued over a long period of time and it included legal battles. This resulted in laying of a four-lane road along the Tata-Adityapur-Kandra route. Yet, the legacy of road accidents in the Saraikela-Kharsawan district did not abate.

Another very serious cause of road accidents in the district is that of rows of trucks parked along the roads because of eateries strewn along the routes. This prevailing road scenario is a threat for two and four-wheeled vehicle riders. The seriousness of this situation is underlined by official figures of 104 deaths in 17 months as the smaller vehicle riders have rammed into rear ends of trucks and other larger vehicles parked indecently along roadside eateries.  Such accidents have mostly occurred along the Tata-Kandra, Saraikela-Chaibasa, Saraikela-Kandra, Chowka-Kandra and Rajnagar-Hata roads. These road mishaps are continuing to prevail in spite of the district, police and road safety teams’ unrelenting efforts to  eradicate these ever-growing incidences of accidents, mostly fatal, along these main roads.

 In fact, the district and police administrations have marked 32 black or accident prone spots on these routes in the entire Saraikela-Kharsawan jurisdiction. This was done so that vehicle drivers would exercise utmost caution while negotiating these 32 black spots. But road mishaps continue unchecked thus indicating that the measures undertaken by the district authorities are insufficient to curb accidents on these vital intra-district road links.

The carelessness of drivers behind road accidents, however, cannot be ruled out including the ‘drunk and drive’ effect.  A majority of accidents continue to account for these mishaps, mostly fatal in nature. Awareness campaigns for drivers of big, medium and small vehicles including two-wheeler riders have become necessary to at least, curb accidents on these vital routes. Such sustained awareness campaigns across the district, presently seems the sole panacea for containing such mishaps.

In these days, the news of accidents, unfortunately, have turned out to be a single day’s concern and such information are relegated to the status of fillers in news publication. The consistency of accident reports,  frankly speaking, has been relegated to the brackets of ennui in spite of the fact that persons killed in these accidents cause almost perennial darkness in their homes. Many of the deceased had been the sole breadwinners of their families. Such incidents can be checked to some extent if road users stick to road safety norms while traversing these roads. Or else, it will be very difficult to harness the growing graph of road accident deaths.