Road crashes remain rampant in Punjab
During the past week fatal road traffic crashes claimed many innocent lives and left several others injured across Punjab.
In one such road accident, at least 13 people were burnt alive after two vehicles collided head on with each other near Narang Mandi on Kala Khatai Road. The incident reportedly occurred because of fog. Right after the accident, a gas cylinder in one of the vehicles caught fire that spread to the other vehicle as well.
As a result, at least 13 people were burnt alive while over 30 others were left injured.
On December 4, over a dozen people were seriously injured in two road accidents on M-2 and M-3 motorways near Fiazpur interchange and Mehmood Booti Interchange respectively. Over half a dozen vehicles had collided with each other. This incident also resulted because poor visibility amid fog.
Road traffic crashes were a leading cause of deaths in Punjab. As per data compiled by Rescue 1122, at least 363 people died in road crashes in the month of November across the province while thousands of others were left injured.
The data analysis also showed that these crashes were increasing with each passing day. In recent months, on average daily road crashes had crossed 900. Two years ago, on average road accidents were between 700 and 800.
The road crashes were most of the time attributed to mistakes of the driver including rash driving, overspeeding and wrong turn. In other cases, technical faults in the vehicle were the reason for the road crashes. Another stated reason was the lack of traffic rules enforcement.
However, this was a myopic approach toward the alarming traffic issues by the authorities concerned. It is also another means of conveniently shrugging off the responsibility.
A coordinated approach was needed to look into the cause of such worrying numbers of road crash incidents showing no early signs of a decrease.
Road accidents do not occur simply because of human errors or inefficiency of the law enforcement agency. The lack of proper infrastructure and flaws in road engineering also contributed to the crisis.
There also seemed to be a recurrence of fatal accidents on certain roads. The road multiple road accidents on Kala Khatai Road was a prime example.
It is deemed as a deadly road by regular commuters due to frequent occurrence of road accidents.
A few days ago, at least nine people had died in a single day in the accidents occurring on Kala Khatai Road. In the past years, similar deadly tragic accidents had also been reported on the same road.
On November 11, 2013, at least four died and 22 injured in an accident on the road. In December 2013, at least five people were killed and several others were injured.
On October 31, 2015, six died while twenty were injured when a speeding bus overturned. In November 2019, one person was killed and three others were injured in an accident involving a motorcycle on the road.
Earlier this year, a minor died and ten others were left injured in an accident on the deadly Kala Khatai Road.
Despite such huge number of casualties, no authorities concerned had ever investigated the causes of the deaths on Kala Khatai Road.
It is a single road connecting Narang Mandi, Narowal, and hundreds of villages lying in between, to Lahore.
Observing the influx of traffic on the road, it can be safely concluded that it should not be two way at all. The passenger vehicles, in order to reach in time at their destinations, opt to overtake the other vehicle. In this attempt, they often come head on and collide with each other. No authority concerned had urged the government to end this one way road and construct a dual carriage way.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2020.