The Doda bus accident in which about 39 people died has left the whole union territory of Jammu and Kashmir in utter sadness. The sheer scale of death and devastation brought by this accident is unprecedented even for a hilly town of Doda which has frequently had its brushes with such accidents. It is amazing how thousands of people have died in road accidents in the Chenab region over the last three decades. Every year we hear from the administration that stricter guidelines about overloading and rash driving have been put in place but every year we see a vast gap between the directions and the actual implementation on the ground.
The statistics of accidents occurring in the Chenab region is horrifying to say the least. As per the data compiled, from 2020 to 2023 a total of 881 road accidents took place in Doda and Kishtwar districts. In Kishtwar, around 90 accidents took place, leading to the loss of 88 lives and 235 individuals sustaining injuries. The Doda witnessed 791 accidents, resulting in 170 deaths and 1,026 injuries which led to a total of 258 deaths in the twin districts of Chenab region. These statistics are alarming to say the least.
These roads have frequent hairpin bends which are hard to negotiate if the driver is inexperienced, drunk, too tired, or sometimes the time of the day also plays a crucial role. Negotiating these hairpin bends at pre-dawn hours when the driver has had a hard time catching some sleep during the previous night can be a serious challenge. Overloading of buses and other vehicles is also a serious issue. When vehicles are filled with passengers sometimes many times beyond the carrying capacity negotiating these hairpin bends becomes an even greater challenge. All these factors combine together leading to frequent accidents on these roads. Besides, a good majority of these people who travel to and from Chenab region to bigger cities like Jammu and Srinagar are poor laborers or small-time salesmen who come back to their villages over the weekend. The limited number of buses plying on these routes is also a major concern that needs to be addressed straightaway unfailingly.
With the able administration spearheaded by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha we expect serious resolutions to this end. With these words, we once again send our condolences to those who lost their lives in this accident. Their immediate family members and dependants must be provided with adequate monetary compensation by the government.
