It is very distressing to note the rising number of road accidents in our State wherein innocent lives are being lost each day. A glance at the traffic within our city and towns indicates general lack of traffic sense among the drivers and pedestrians alike.
Similar is the situation on our State highways where there is blatant violation of traffic rules such as unauthorised parking for making purchases from the roadside vendors, over-speeding and dangerous overtaking in their hurry to gain a few minutes.
The poor condition of the roads only increases the risk of accidents to such speeding vehicles and other innocent persons who may unfortunately fall victims to rash and negligent driving.
It is also highly disturbing to note the increasing incidents of hit-and-run cases wherein the culprits make good their escape leaving the accident victims bleeding and helpless on the road.
Several road accident victims have lost their lives for want of immediate onsite care and first-aid and timely transfer to the nearest hospital, which could have been easily volunteered by any caring passers-by.
One such accident prone stretch in Margao is the winding railway over-bridge. It is my humble suggestion to the authorities to install CCTV cameras on this Margao Railway over bridge to monitor rash driving, dangerous overtaking on this railway over bridge so that the traffic offenders may be immediately identified and booked by the Traffic Cell, and this will also serve as a caution to the erring drivers/riders before they take innocent lives.
Meanwhile, timely intervention by any witness to a road accident like administering basic care and first aid until the arrival of the ambulance can definitely save precious lives of road accident victims. We should not hesitate to take this all important first step in the interest of humanity.
There is also a need to organise awareness programmes to educate the general public in this regard, not just during the Road Safety Week, but more frequently throughout the year to cover a greater audience.
