Road accidents in Doda have killed more people than terrorism or natural disasters. File Photo

Ranjit Thakur

Doda, November 6

In all, 143 people have been killed and 1,046 injured in different road accidents across the twin districts of Doda and Kishtwar in the past three years.The road accidents in Doda-Kishtwar have killed more people than terrorism or natural disasters. Experts have blamed human negligence, bad maintenance of roads, untrained drivers and poor condition of vehicles for the accidents.As per the official figures, 89 people lost their lives on Doda roads while 803 people got injured in 462 road accidents since 2015. In Kishtwar, 54 people got killed and 243 people got injured in separate accidents.Officials in the traffic police said rash and negligent driving continued to be the main cause for the high number of fatalities in Doda and Kishtwar while poor condition of vehicle, use of mobile phones while driving and poor road conditions were also the contributing factors.Former minister and senior National Conference leader Khalid Najeeb Sourawardi said, “The traffic police are completely busy doing challans, but they never check vehicle overloading or driving licences.”“It saddens me that there has been a negligible impact on the number of deaths despite our best efforts to educate people by holding meetings, protests and rallies in Doda. I think, unless the state government passes a strong law against the violation of traffic rules and punish drivers stringently, the problem cannot be solved,” Ishtaq Ahmed Dev, a civil society member, said.“I have personally identified 36 ‘black spots’ from Assar to Kishtwar, which are highly vulnerable due to absence of road barriers, which need to be checked by the authorities without further delay. However, the roads are not the only reason of accidents here, but human errors too. We are collectively working with the police and the district administration to stop rash driving and educating drivers to adhere to traffic rules,” Zooheb Patigaroo, Deputy SP, Traffic Doda-Kishtwar Range, said.“We just have 60-70 policemen on the Batote-Kishtwar national highway. Also, we are working collectivity with the district police to regulate the traffic norms,” he added.

Mishaps mainly due to rash driving

• Officials in the traffic police said rash and negligent driving continued to be the main cause for the high number of fatalities in Doda and Kishtwar while poor condition of vehicle, use of mobile phones while driving and poor road conditions were also the contributing factors
• As per the official figures, 89 people lost their lives on Doda roads while 803 people got injured in 462 road accidents since 2015. In Kishtwar, 54 people got killed and 243 people got injured in separate accidents