Road Safety In Festive Rush

This is the major festival season in Nepal and thousands of people leave Kathmandu Valley to celebrate Dashain, Tihar and Chhath festivals with their family and many prefer to travel and explore new places during this vacation. Both roads and vehicles are crammed during the festive season and a study shows that during this time of the year road accidents increase by threefold. Everybody is in festive rush and both government and stakeholders seem to be inadequately prepared to deal with the situation. Most of the hospitals provide emergency service only and in large cases the OPD services are closed. So the people have no option but to travel in crowded public vehicles, overlooking the risk of potential accidents. 

The public buses, microbuses and other vehicles are overcrowded, the reckless driving and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs is rampant during the festival time which often claim many lives. For those who lost their nearest and dearest ones, the time of festivities turn into the time of mourning. Many youngsters set out on a long perilous journey on their motorbikes, as they find it more comfortable to travel and often neglect the fact that travelling such long distance on two-wheelers is extremely risky. Travelling on motorbike is unsafe compared to travelling on four wheelers and riders should be acquainted with the road safety rules.  Sadly, during festivities, both authorities and travellers are off guard which leads to over speeding, reckless driving, and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. 

As per a report, the majority of accidents in Nepal occur due to driver’s negligence, poor condition of roads and lack of proper implementation and adherence to traffic rules. The majority of our roads lack proper infrastructures like street signs, speed breakers and street lights. The traffic management authorities should be especially alert at this time of the year. Traffic police claim that they are monitoring the traffic situation by deploying additional number of personnel for this season. Long distance passenger buses are required to have drivers for two shifts and traffic inspection has been intensified to control drunk driving and over speeding. But more it is apparent that more needs to be done to ensure safety in highways and outlying rural roads where over crowding and sitting on vehicle roof is common.  

While talking about the recent road accidents at least six people died and one sustained serious injuries when a jeep returning to Tansen from Rani Mahal plunged into river and as many as 18 people sustained serious injuries in four separate road accidents in Dhading on 26th October. Public buses are extremely packed after the festival celebrations are over as there is a rush again to return to the capital valley and other urban centres. Nearly 13,000 people have died and many have sustained serious injuries due to road accidents throughout the country in the last five years. This is a hair-raising situation. About 3,000 people lost their lives to road accidents in the last one year alone.

The drivers are required to take half an hour’s break after four hours on the wheel. Passenger vehicles are generally prohibited to carry more passengers than the total number of seats and long distance vehicles are required to have two drivers and the drivers need to change shift every six hours. Drunk driving is legally banned. The question is whether these rules are being strictly enforced and adhered to or not. A freewheeling tendency on the road, which is common these days, can lead to disasters. So, concerned stakeholders must take the road safety issue seriously.