The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Road safety in peril in rural areas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007
ePaper

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Road safety in peril in rural areas

S. Anil Radhakrishnan

Increased contact with non-motorised traffic

Thiruvananthapuram: Road safety in the rural areas of the State is turning to be a major challenge for the law enforcing agencies with more than 60 per cent of the road accidents in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam districts taking place in the rural areas last year.

Increased interaction between motorised and non-motorised traffic and pedestrians getting exposed to long-distance traffic passing through the rural road network are cited as the main reasons for the disturbing trends.

Road accident statistics of State Crime Records Bureau shows the 61.53 per cent of the accidents in Thiruvananthapuram district that occurred in 2006 was registered in the rural areas. In Ernakulam district, it was 60.68 per cent.

However, the percentage of road accidents reported from the rural areas of Kozhikode district was comparatively less (48.72 per cent) than the other two districts. Urban areas witnessed 51.27 per cent of the road accidents in the district last year.

Of the 5,483 road accidents that took place in the capital district last year, 3,374 were in rural areas and 2,109 within the city limits. In Ernakulam district, 4,227 road accidents took place in the rural areas and 2,739 in the urban areas.

Poor road geometrics, hidden junctions, potholes, broken road edges, sudden drop in the shoulders and narrow roads also contributed to the road accidents in rural areas.

Road safety experts pointed out that people, especially women and children, were feeling increasingly unsafe after the opening up of the rural roads. The better the rural road, the greater the accident risk. Tourism-related activities in rural areas were also adding to the accident risk of local people.

Studies showed that the interaction between motorised and non-motorised transport caused the majority of road accidents on rural roads. Bridges and culverts remained a safety hazard in rural areas as they were not provided or were in a dilapidated condition. Many a time heavy vehicles were found using the fragile water-crossing bridges.

Road safety experts said rural transport safety was multi-dimensional and a challenge for many people, especially women and children. Better enforcement of law in rural areas was needed to enforce safety and to reduce accidents.

Private bus operators argued that the enforcement of existing and new safety regulations would bring an end to the already limited rural transport services.

This could spell a disaster for local communities’ accessibility and prove counter-productive to the goals for most rural roads programmes.

Mahesh Chand, Chief Project Coordinator, National Transportation Planning and Research Centre, told The Hindu that road safety should be included as a safety component in the national rural road programmes being implemented in the c ountry.

Another solution highlighted was the development of an integrated planning and implementation approach that applied poverty reduction criteria and involved all rural stakeholders.

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