Times of India | 4 hours ago | 19-09-2022 | 08:52 am
PANAJI: The tragic accident involving Indian businessman and former chairman of the Tata Group has thrown sharp focus on the need to wear seatbelts even by non-driving occupants of the vehicle. There are about 11 lakh vehicles on Goa’s roads in addition to the thousands of tourist vehicles that arrive in the state. Monitoring the occupants of each vehicle to prevent fatalities would prove to be a Herculean task. Though Goa is yet to get orders from the central government to implement this rule in the state, the state directorate of transport’s enforcement section is already contemplating cracking the whip on four-wheelers. “Even if one is driving responsibly another motorist may be irresponsible. The possibilities for such accidents are endless,” said deputy director of transport Francis Vaz. Some of the highest road accident figures in the past decade reveal that there were 270 deaths in 2012, 336 in 2016, 328 in 2017, 223 in 2020 and 226 deaths in 2021. Even chief minister Pramod Sawant came on record last month to say that on an average there are 250 people dying annually in road accidents in Goa. Social activist Roland Martins who advocates road safety said that there is often a problem with the ground level staff during implementation. “Even the rich and famous are not immune to road accident fatalities. It is about time that the corporates also step forward and contribute towards making the roads safer through CSR activity,” he said. Road safety activists in the state said that zero-tolerance to negligence by traffic officials and violations by the public must be imposed prior to the seatbelt mandate. “There are many old vehicles which do not have provision of seatbelts so enforcement without such things being considered is of no use,” said road safety activist, Dilip Naik. “The easy distribution of licenses must stop. Road safety is a serious issue considering the number of accidents taking place this year. Right from the poor quality work by PWD engineers to negligent traffic cell officers, everyone must be held responsible in addition to this, to ensure that the roads are safe.” Naik said.
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