PANJIM: The number of accidents and adeaths in Goa has reached alarming levels. Nine people are dead in 16 days. And there have been 22 accidents in this period. Doing the math on the average number of deaths and accidents per day is easy. What is not, is the all-round negligence on many fronts which is throwing the road safety initiative under the bus.
In February at least two major accidents occurred in a day in which seven lives were lost. Ironically, this happened when the State was observing Road Safety Awareness Month. The Road Transport Office (RTO) is conspicuously absent, and the Traffic Cell of Goa Police is simply outnumbered.
Accidents happened in rural as well as fast-moving urban areas as well. However, these accidents have claimed the lives of seven persons and have left several occupants and pillions injured beyond recovery.
A relook at the accidents of February reveals that most of the accidents were self and in case of accidental deaths, it is the young who are dying. Not just road accidents but negligence by public transport buses have also resulted in three major accidents across Goa. A woman was crushed under a private bus at the Panjim bus stand, a schoolgirl fell off a bus in Kundaim and a private bus veered off and rammed onto the roadside at Khandepar. Students travelling in a Bal Rath bus were injured in an accident that happened in Netravali.
The buzz around accidents led to the obvious question- Who is responsible?
The Director General of Police Jaspal Singh while replying to a post highlighting accidents in Goa through Twitter said, "Police are only one of the stakeholders. All agencies - PWD,
Municipalities, Panchayats, Transport Department, civil society, schools, and colleges have to work in tandem."
When alleged that police do not know the enforcement of rules, DGP said, "Police know because they are taught at the Academies. But those who teach (driving schools) and those who test prospective drivers for issuing a driving licence don't know. That is where the problem lies."
According to the data furnished by the Road Transport Office between April 2022 and March 2023, 291 licences were suspended for drunken driving while between April 2023 and December 2023, 272 licences were suspended. Furthermore, between April 2022 and March 2023, 2,329 licences were suspended and April 2023 to December 2023, 1,848 licences were suspended for overspeeding.
President of MARG Parishad Anant Agni said, "Neither the education nor the Road Transport authorities are serious about developing discipline and road culture in Goa. Fatal accidents on rural roads can be attributed to the degraded patience level among youth."
"Efforts to develop traffic sense and discipline in Goa are absolutely zero," he added.
Agni recollected saying, "MARG had taken up a pilot project and finalised the syllabus for a subject we proposed to have in schooling by the name 'civic sense'. The project was successful with the formation of 40 civic clubs in schools. However, for the last 4 years the proposal has gathered dust."
Founder President of Goa Road Safety Forum Dilip Naik said, "The government doesn't look serious in changing the road safety scenario of Goa. Fatalities in Goa have been more during the Road Safety Week and it is so ironic."
He said that vehicles nowadays are highly-powered and the carrying capacity of roads and the licencing system in the State is very weak. "Licencing of vehicle users in Goa needs to be stricter," he requested.