The intensity in road accidents on Srinagar-Jammu highway rises during the chilly months of the winter season as the highway turns slippery due to heavy and incessant rain during the chilly months of winter. Even the road widening completed on some tracks and continuing on may other tracks at an accelerated pace does not reduce the intensity of road accident deaths on highway and more so in stone shooting and landslide prone areas in the harshest winter months of December, January and February. Roughly the official figures confirm that over ten thousand people have died during last one decade in road accidents in Jammu & Kashmir and interestingly the highest numbers of causalities were reported in the recent years. Alarmed by the growing incidents of road accidents and the unprecedented rise in fatality rates, the previous Mehbooba Mufti led PDP-BJP coalition government of erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir state though introduced the Jammu and Kashmir Road Safety Council Act, 2018 in the assembly for the formation of a State Road Safety Council but the exercise was reduced to paper work only as the council proposed in the bill was not constituted as act provided that such a State Road Safety Council would be responsible for road safety across the erstwhile state with the powers to give advice to the government on transport safety measures was not constituted. The council headed by the then Transport Minister was also supposed to be involved in charting safety policies, enforce road safety standards and conduct awareness programs. Barring road safety measures a gaping hole in the availability of health care facilities in the state aggravates the situations arising in the aftermath of the road accidents particularly on Srinagar-Jammu highway. Since the government has done very little to upgrade the infrastructure at the hospitals located on Srinagar-Jammu highway, the possibilities of reducing deaths and disabilities caused by accidents has become almost impossible for doctors in government run hospitals on Srinagar-Jammu highway.
Not only road safety measures but upgradation of the trauma centers and availability of critical ambulances are also the pressing issues deserving immediate attention of the government to reduce the chances of deaths and disabilities on Srinagar-Jammu highway which has almost become a killer highway.
Though the government announced the establishment of 17 trauma centers along the highways in the year 2012 to provide immediate intervention in case of road accidents but allegations are galore that these trauma centers are poorly equipped and most of them are yet to be made functional. Shockingly complaints about the huge dearth of critical care ambulances in the hospitals on Srinagar-Jammu highway are more rampant than the dismal working of the trauma centers on this highway. So not only road safety measures but upgradation of the trauma centers and availability of critical ambulances are also the pressing issues deserving immediate attention of the government to reduce the chances of deaths and disabilities on Srinagar-Jammu highway which has almost become a killer highway.
