Safe Drive
Road safety in J&K state has received much attention in the last few years and for good reasons. The yearly death toll by fatal accidents across Jammu and Kashmir would compel any government or agency to place it at a higher position in the list of pr
Post by on Monday, May 18, 2020
Road safety in J&K state has received much attention in the last few years and for good reasons. The yearly death toll by fatal accidents across Jammu and Kashmir would compel any government or agency to place it at a higher position in the list of priorities where the objective is to save lives. Many underlying causes and factors leading to an increasing number of accidents each year have been identified and some issued addressed in the capacity that government agencies can afford. From obeying traffic rules to designing roads that are less prone to motor accidents, almost all has been covered. Yet, an important point regarding motor accidents and casualties has been overlooked if not entirely missed. Few year ago many automobile companies in India had a rough time when the car safety issue was mooted. Only few cars and that too in luxury class were found to provide the level of safety needed to save lives even in fatal crashes. Surprisingly, most of the cars that are on roads got a zero safety rating by a credible safety rating agency Euro NCAP, which had conducted a series of safety and crash tests on popular Indian cars. After the test ratings were released, many auto makers came up with features like airbags in many of their car variants. Even today most of the small Indian cars have failed to cross the safety bar with pressure continuously building on the manufacturers to improvise their design and systems regarding safety. Accidents happen, although government or any agency for that matter may try to minimize the chances, they are inevitable. But what governments can do is to ensure that lives of people are saved even if accidents do happen. Vehicular safety in this context serves the purpose well and it brings the attention on a known factor that has constantly been ignored. The awareness on vehicular/car safety needs to be mobilized and also enhanced. People who drive should know how much safe their vehicles are on roads and what kind of force they can withstand. Safety gear other than helmets and belts, like airbags, must also be taken into account and more information on them disseminated. In fact safety parameters for new buyers must be given more merit than other specifications. In many parts of the world there is a higher rate of motor accidents yet lesser fatalities and mostly because of the vehicular safety standards. This needs not only to be checked with cars/new cars but also other vehicles that are mostly likely to fail the safety tests. In outdated vehicles used in public transport the risks are also high due to lesser control and much lesser safety standard.