BHUBANESWAR: Peeved over the death of 11 persons of a wedding party in a bus accident near Digapahandi in Ganjam district on June 25 night, the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety has sought a comprehensive report from the Odisha government.
Taking serious note of the tragic mishap, the apex court’s committee termed it a matter of concern and asked the chief secretary (CS) to submit the investigation report on the reasons behind the accident along with the action taken report and measures being planned to prevent such road fatalities in future. The CS has been asked to submit the report by July 31.
On the fateful night, 11 people, including two kids, were killed and seven others injured when the mini bus they were travelling in was hit by a speeding OSRTC bus. Preliminary investigations revealed the mishap took place due to sleep inertia of the OSRTC driver. He has been arrested. The state has reported three major road accidents in the first three days of the week leaving 25 people dead.
While a family of three were killed when their car collided with an acid tanker in Koraput district on Tuesday, six ‘baraatis’ were killed and nine sustained injuries after an iron ore-laden truck rammed into them in Keonjhar district in the wee hours of Wednesday. Like the Digapahandi accident, drivers of the tanker and the iron ore truck were blamed for the mishaps in both the cases.
The Supreme Court Committee has pulled up the state government several times for failing to curb rising road fatalities in Odisha. Several measures like enforcement of traffic rules, crash investigation and awareness, notwithstanding, road deaths continue to rise in the state, which was tasked to reduce it by 50 per cent by 2020.
According to experts, 85 per cent of accidents in the state happened due to human errors and other associated issues while the rest 15 per cent road mishaps were attributed to road engineering. Over-speeding, however, remains one of the critical factors associated with road accidents because higher speeds reduce the time available to avoid collisions and makes the impact more severe.
Professor at the School of Infrastructure, IIT-Bhubaneswar Umesh Chandra Sahoo said most of the road crashes in Odisha are associated with the characteristics of drivers - be it negligence, over speeding, fatigue, drunken driving or use of cell phone while driving.
“A fatigued driver can cause severe collisions with catastrophic outcomes. Apart from stringent enforcement of road laws, periodic safety audits and corrective measures, the state administration should turn its focus on orientation of drivers and make double drivers mandatory for long travel by buses and trucks especially during nights,” Prof Sahoo suggested.
Road safety
Odisha witnessed 7.6 per cent rise in road fatalities during 2022 as compared to 2021
Fatality graph went up by 29 per cent from 2014 to 2021
5467 people died in 11,663 accidents in 2022
5,081 deaths in 10,983 accidents in 2021
4,738 killed in 2020
Road accident deaths rose by over 10 per cent in the first three months of 2023