The year 2024 has started with an increased rate of road accidents claiming nine lives within a period of three days. This is about a 400 per cent increase in the fatal accident rate if it is compared with the rate of accidents that occurred during the same period last year.
An analysis of the data available with O Heraldo indicated that nearly one life was lost every day in the month of January last year. According to the data, as many as 230 persons lost their lives from January to November last year.
The highest 38 lives were lost in the month of January 2023 while the lowest 11 lives were lost in the month of August. This means that in the month of January last year, on an average every day at least one life was lost.
In the month of February, 25 lives were lost, in March 28 lives, in April 25, in May 18, in June 17, in July 21, September 14, October 15 and November 18.
The year 2024 began with the news of death of Ayush Halankar, a 21-year-old son of former councillor of the CCP, in an accident that occurred around 3.46 am near People’s High School, Panjim. Another fatal accident took place at Opa Junction, Khandepar, Ponda, in which 55-year-old Suresh Naik, a resident of Ponda, lost his life. This year, nine innocent lives were lost due to road accidents within first three days.
Every year Goa grapples with fatal accidents. This is because we have public representatives, who have absolutely forgotten what basic safety measures are needed. Funds allocated for road safety are either wasted or not implemented. There is no dissemination of information from people who are supposed to spend the funds.
Public representatives are not always involved in the decision-making process. There is an absolute lackadaisical approach towards any kind of road safety issues, including safety around construction works that are going on where road safety is absolutely minimal or absent.
Places that are dug in the city of Panjim have actually become death traps, where being alive is the exception and being dead has become the norm. This is absolutely shameful.
Although, numerous debates have been done on the issue of road accidents in Goa, what has probably not been touched in the earlier debates is the corruption involved in issuing of driving licenses. There are a lot of potential killers driving four-wheelers and riding two-wheelers, who should not be on the road in the first place.
Then is the manner in which our roads are engineered. Are they engineered in such a way to prevent mishaps or is it done in such a way so that you’re actually ensuring that accidents take place. Road engineering is a big factor. The black spots is another major issue.
Commenting on the issue of road safety in Goa, Roland Martins, Coordinator of GOACAN, said, “Today there are various issues, whether it’s enforcement, education or road engineering. See, the Supreme Court committee on road safety has very clearly put in place, what we call a lead agency. Transport department, Traffic Police, Health department, PWD are some of the vital agencies, which are part of this agency and have to work together. Unfortunately, the lead agency is not able to lead.”
“I think, it is the first issue we have to address, because if you have a system put in place and it’s not able to move forward, that’s one issue. Second thing is, last year itself the sub-committees for analysis of road accidents was notified. All the 27-odd police stations of Goa have been notified as sub-committee along with the mobile numbers of the engineers who have to analyse the mishaps. Now, my submission is that if these accidents of January 2023 were analysed a few of them and put out in the public domain, then everybody would have known what is the issue,” Martins said.
“So, panchayat or municipality or CCP whoever it is, could reflect and say okay what my role is. So somewhere along the line, I feel the notifications are in place. Just last month, notifications have been issued by the PwD about signages. The point which I would like to emphasise here and what we have seen recently as far as CCP is concerned in the last year itself, we have been taking up with both the District Collectors and various department that, when you issue a tender, it is given there very clearly what the contractor has to do,” he said.
“Traffic Marshalls have to be put, red lantern in the night, warning signals etc are required. But nobody is looking at these aspects. So, the point here these death traps, which we face today, is because that once a tender is issued, there’s nobody to follow it up. Even in Panjm I have pursued cases and got boards put up at various locations. But you know, GOACAN can’t be doing this,” Martins said.
“Now, even the Road Safety Committee in place. So, I think the time has come that this entire issue becomes broad-based. We have to get everybody involved and start dealing with these notifications, because I think if a notification is in place, it gives the power to the citizens, the elected bodies, academic institutions to move forward. This is my solution,” he said.
On wee hours of January 1, a horrific fatal accident happened just outside the People’s School where this 21-year-old son of a former counsellor died, while he was riding back. He fell into a big pit, which was dug up for sewage works. Now the point is that, when you do civic works across the city like this, why can’t there be greater responsibility taken to ensure that there are proper barricades or signages that make an area completely accident-proof?
Now who is responsible for this and even though one can call it a Smart City project, shouldn’t the elected representatives from the city should be responsible?
Responding to this question, Vasant Agshikar, a senior councillor of Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP), who represents a ward which is surrounded by roads that are completely dug and are completely in a mess, said, “So basically, whatever has happened, the life has gone. Blaming and passing the buck from every time is very easy. But the family of our ex-colleague is aggrieved and it will be there forever.”
“Coming down to the issue of local representatives, to be very frank, there is very less role for local representatives in the ongoing works. I’ve been very vocal in the earlier debates at various channels, saying that role of local representative should be more because we are like a bridge between the government and the locals from the area. So, whatever information we get from the government departments or the contractors, we can pass it on to the residents, whereby the people know that roads are being diverted, there are works going on and people can take utmost precaution,” Agshikar said.
“As far as monitoring the works is concerned, I think it should be always proactive rather than reactive. You know, unfortunately we are in a setup where everything is reactive. Just because there was an incident on January 1, now we are debating and discussing. But it should be the same pattern throughout the year. The work should be proactive and I think the responsibilities whether it is the elected representatives, the contractors, the citizens – all should contribute in the safety of each other,” the councillor said.
If the whole city is dug up and there are death traps everywhere, what are the precautions being taken to ensure that people don’t fall in them? Where are the signages and barricades – this is a specific question. It’s not about being reactive or proactive. Either way you look at it, this still has to be done.
“See, in every tender, there are safety precautions mentioned. Now, down the line, as elected representatives or citizens don’t know what is there in the tender, what are the safety precautions, if we are made aware…I think we can go after the contractors in the interest of the citizens. We can follow up and get it done or make them suspend their work, until they take all the precautions,” Agshikar said.
“Now, as I said, we had done it in a proactive manner, I don’t think such incidents would have taken place, because we can pressurise the contractors and the engineers to put all the safety mechanisms in place first. There should be a safety audit, there should be proper signages, there should be proper you know night vision refractors and as citizens, while riding, blaming a certain agency is okay, but as riders or drivers we should be also more responsible. It is our lives, our families are waiting for us. We just cannot pass the buck on certain agencies,” the CCP councillor said.
“We should also take care while riding. We should take utmost precautions. Knowing that the roads have been dug everywhere, we should have more civic sense. I think if we control our driving speed and our egos, if we leave on time, then the number of accidents will reduce,” he said.
The big question that we need to need to ask here is that, are most of the drivers who are behind the wheel or on top of a two-wheeler, are they even authorised to drive it, because if you get back into the manner in which their licenses are issued, the big problem is that majority of licences issued are done under some influence or downright payment.
The laws of issuing licenses have gone completely to the winds and unless this is completely checked, you’ll still have a lot of people who do not know how to drive, do not know how to how to ride, have no knowledge of persons who are getting the licences.
Sudip Tamhankar, RTI activist and General Secretary of All Goa Private Bus Owners Association, who has dealt with a lot of these issues, said, “There is rampant corruption in the Transport Department while issuing licences. In present situation, people are getting licences while sitting at home. There are different rates for various types of licences – Rs 20,000 for light motor vehicle, Rs 30,000 for medium, Rs 40,000 for heavy motor vehicle.”
“Second thing is, there is no proper audit of driving schools and third is the newly constructed roads don’t have proper finishing. I remember that in Uttar Pradesh, a fighter jet landed on a newly constructed road. I have also seen that a glass of water was kept on dashboard of SUV moving at a speed of 150 Km/hr and not a single drop of water fell from the glass,” Tamhankar said.
“In Goa, all these roads which are new constructed, one can feel the vibrations of the moving car. So this is important. Regarding issuing of licenses, earlier, the RTO inspector used to test the knowledge about traffic signals to begin with. Now, I think the online system has done a lot of damage. People are able to get licences through online system, while they don’t have not proper knowledge about traffic rules,” he said.
“It is also the responsibility of driving schools to keep all the parts of dismantled vehicles, to give proper knowledge of all the parts. But that is not being done,” he said.
Bhavik Mirashi and Ayush Gupta, students from the Goa Institute of Management (GIM), have studied the various aspects related to road safety, including road engineering and black spots and they have submitted a report to the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI).
Speaking more about their study and its purpose, Ayush Gupta said, “Our aim was to identify the blind spots in Goa like what are the blind spots and black spots in Goa. So, a black spot is a place where more than 10 accidents have taken place in a distance of 500 mtrs, within a particular given time spam. So, when we were doing our project, we were identifying the blind and black spots that were causing accidents in Goa.”
“As we know that Goa attracts thousands of tourists. The safety of these tourists and the local people is of utmost importance. So, when we were analysing the roads, our aim was to identify what are the major problems which are causing these accidents,” he said.
“Regarding road construction, we found that at some places, the road was not built completely. Places where roads had been built, there were blind spots,” Gupta said.
Bhavik Mirashi said, “When we initiated the project, we also met various stakeholders concerned with our project. So we met the traffic cell in-charge, head of the Lead Agency and we while going on the field, we also interacted with the locals and the traffic police. So we got to know what the needs of each spot were. So we identified 20 spots. Each spot has its own requirement, like road markings, dividers, signages and illumination. These are the main aspects which we identified when we interacted with the locals, because they are the ones who are suffering on day-to-day basis.”
“I can list out some names spots like the Kundaim Industrial Estate. There aren’t any functioning street lights. We got to know that most of the accidents are occurring at the night time. Then there is another spot at GVM circle at Farmagudi. When it was constructed, within the first month only we identified three accidents over there. When a truck is going down the slope, it’s at a high speed and there’s a sudden turn. The turn should be on the same level, not on the slope,” he said.
It’s time that we should move ahead in the New Year and I think the priority should be given to proper maintenance and caretaking of the road should be done and all the like concerned authorities should come together.
If there are two or three committees, they should come together and make a proper decision regarding the roads, because in the end, the safety of the people matters. There is a villain in all of us, because whenever we are not doing our jobs properly, different agencies have failed at different points of time without realising that their act of corruption or negligence or unawareness is ultimately leading to a larger picture.
It is almost like a drop. Each drop builds up the ocean and that’s exactly what is happening. When we don’t do our jobs properly, then it becomes a huge mountain of inefficiency and dread and disaster. That is exactly what is being witnessed on the roads, because when you lose a life, the result is absolute tragedy.
But each life is lost due to a series of things that are supposed to be done and not done by different authorities, who are responsible. So all of us have villains, but the bright point here is that all of us have a chance to be heroes, if civic bodies, the police, the driving schools and also the Transport department decide to basically implement rules that are already existent.
Use the funds that are available. The media needs to play a role of not only highlighting but spreading awareness.
