New Delhi: Dangerous roads, dilapidated vehicles, unskilled drivers and overloaded vehicles... the incident of 36 people losing their lives in a bus accident in Almora, Uttarakhand, draws attention to the basic shortcomings and weaknesses of road safety in our country. Buses are often victims of accidents and this number is increasing.

About 10 thousand people died

According to a report by the Ministry of Road Transport, the number of accidents caused by drivers losing control of their vehicles increased by more than five percent in 2022. 9,862 people lost their lives in such accidents. The figures for 2023 are expected to be released next week and this number has increased by ten percent.

The driver is not fully trained

The ministry puts these cases of accidents in the category of run off the road, that is, a vehicle going out of control and causing an accident. This also includes vehicles falling into ditches in hilly areas, as happened in Uttarakhand. Road safety expert Anurag Kulshreshtha says that this accident is sad, but its reasons are the same which are already known. Most of our drivers are not fully trained and the general standards of safety are not followed.

Overloading increases the risk

If the bus that met with the accident in Uttarakhand had more passengers than its capacity, then it is clear that this would have affected the balance and momentum of the bus while driving. Every bus is designed keeping in mind the seating capacity i.e. the number of seats available in it. The more the overloading, the greater the risk.

More than five thousand accidents involving buses took place in 2022, in which 1798 people lost their lives. If the accidents are seen on the basis of vehicle category, then the percentage of buses is 40.9 and the percentage of people who lost their lives in them is 28.7.

In the context of the Uttarakhand accident, it is initially emerging that the driver lost control of his vehicle due to drowsiness. This aspect is not new, but no measures are being taken to deal with it - neither at the technical level nor psychologically.

suffering from psychological problems

According to Anurag Kulshreshtha, his organization working for road safety had examined the health and psychological level of more than 100 drivers in Gurugram last year, and more than half of them were found to be suffering from blood pressure or some psychological problem. The working conditions for them are not professionally suitable.

In such a situation, it will be naturally dangerous for them to drive vehicles in risky places like Uttarakhand. Another problem is that there are people driving vehicles, even commercial vehicles, who do not have a valid license. About 12 percent of accidents happen due to such drivers.