Srinagar, Mar 25: Road accidents have claimed over 8,000 lives in Jammu and Kashmir in the last eight years so much so that a top J&K police official Monday called it a “bigger challenge than militancy”.
The data was shared during the launch of a road safety initiative by J&K Traffic Police department here.
From January 2010 to November 2018, the state witnessed a whopping 54,232 road accidents in which, apart from the number of casualties, 75,600 people were injured.
In 2010, figures show, the state recorded over a 1,000 deaths in 6,000 road accidents, while in 2011, the number of deaths escalated to 1100 in 6600 road accidents.
In 2012, the death toll increased to more the 1,160 in 6,700 road accidents.
From 2013 to 2018, the average number of people killed in road mishaps in the state each year was around 950.
“Traffic problem is a grave issue worldwide, around 1.5 lakh people are killed in traffic incidents in India only and around 1.5 million people are affected across the world,” SSP Srinagar, Dr Haseeb Mughal, said during the event.
The SSP said that road accidents are a “major problem and even bigger a challenge than militancy”.
“Everybody should contribute for smooth and better traffic. If everyone will start following traffic laws and develop a civic sense, we will be able to control the deaths happening due to road accidents,” Dr Mughal said.
Additional Superintendent of the Traffic Police, Srinagar, Sonam Dechen said they are conducting awareness programme to educate people about the traffic rules and wrong parking with leads to traffic jams.
Alarmed by the growing incidents of road accidents and the unprecedented rise in fatality rates, the Jammu and Kashmir government last year introduced the Jammu and Kashmir Road Safety Council Act, 2018, that advocated the formation of a State Road Safety Council.
