Editorial
Festival time road mishaps
Extra precautions needed
Like any previous year, this time, too, many families were deprived of the joy of the Eid festival as the roads took their toll. On the last three Eid holidays at least 18 people were reportedly killed in road accidents in different parts of the country.
The pre-and-post Eid mishaps taken into account, the number of fatalities becomes very worrisome. At all these stages, namely, during homebound journey, mobility during the Eid holidays and return travel to the places of work, the services of the railway, the road and the waterway become prone to accidents. Over the years, precautions have hardly matched the propensities to mishaps. Our understanding is that the manmade factors are chiefly to blame for the fatalities.
The road accidents are, therefore, a constant source of anxiety and heartbreaks of the holidaymakers during the two major Muslim religious festivals every year. But in practice nothing of significance towards ensuring a safe journey has been done so far to address the concern and fears of the Eid travellers.
The safety of the Eid travellers could be best addressed by the government through mounting sufficient number of road patrols on the inter-district highways and strict enforcement of traffic rules. In addition to this, the authorities should also check if the vehicles carrying the Eid travellers are in reasonably good shape, if the men at the wheels are experienced ones and not overworked and if the vehicles are not overloaded.
It is equally important that an awareness campaign is mounted by the government and the citizens' groups to sensitize the people about the hazards of Eid time travel and the do's and don'ts to minimise the possibilities of accidents.
As a matter of fact, the question of safe journey during the Eids is a collective responsibility, where the law-enforcers, the vehicle operators and the passengers need to play their respective roles to avert any accident.
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