Fatalities in Fast Forward mode

From the times of a distant past, when roads, meant mainly for walkers alongside those commuting in animal-drawn carts, were narrow and dwellings were roomy, we have reached a point of laying wide roads and huddling in not-so-roomy dwellings, now called apartments, flats and whatever, in multistoreyed buildings, particularly in urban spaces, a scenario in which Mysuru is catching up fast. Even as the Union Government has just announced a decision to set apart adequate funds for rural roads, the clamour for both wider roads and raising high-rise dwelling is sure to follow in foreseeable future. The attractive sides to the makeover from narrow roads, both within city limits and connecting cities, is already stumped by the steadily rising number of road mishaps and fatalities, the figures sounding astronomical. Deaths on roads are in the cusp of two lakhs and mishaps are scaling six lakh in number annually across the country. Only members of families who lose their kin in mishaps have to bear the brunt of the trauma following every mishap. Given the race among manufacturers of all types of automobiles, for personal use, commerce, public transport and commuting by officialdom to get steadily increasing market share of the industry, followed by opening of showrooms displaying attractive models, in addition to loan facilities to buy automobiles under irresistible terms, roads are sure to get cluttered with greater density of automobiles. Apart from reports in dailies on road mishaps, both intracity and intercity, as well as the resulting loss of life and limbs, readers of their chosen newspapers are now getting familiar with newfangled terms namely, smog (combo of smoke and fog), traffic snarls, parking problems, pollution, emission of gases from ill-maintained vehicles and so on, everyone lost in thought that everyone else is the culprit. The environment belongs to nobody and the roads belong to everybody, the two features that the government finds itself beyond its means and ways of addressing to arrest the ongoing decline in orderly motion of vehicles and safe commuting. The nation’s apex court, playing an ombudsman-like role has asked the governments of all States and Union Territories last week to form a road safety policy and set up lead agencies to implement the guidelines. The entire matter of the country witnessing roads that don’t kill commuters reminds one of the idiom “Closing the stable after the horses have escaped.” Road safety, as of now, is a pipe-dream.