S., resident of Churalmala, Wayanad. Shruti faced the toughest test of life when she lost nine of her family members in the devastating landslide that occurred on July 30 earlier this year. Barely a month after she recovered from the grief of losing her immediate family members, her fiance Jensen, who stood firmly by her side at the time of the devastating tragedy, died in a road accident at Vellaramakunnu near Kalpetta in Wayanad on September 12. ,
The van in which they were traveling collided with a private bus at Vellaramakunnu. Jensen, who was driving at the time of the accident, died two days later. On both occasions, Shruti learned of the shocking loss in her life on rainy mornings. “I felt like a big part of the sky above my head had fallen apart and fallen to the ground,” she says.
He felt lonely and his heart sank. “Life has been very cruel to me. I lost Jensen after a devastating natural disaster that killed my parents,” she says. But life must go on and she is struggling to get her life back on track by taking up a clerk’s job in the state revenue department offered by the Kerala government.
The roads of Kerala have become a killing ground. And those who survive these accidents are either crippled or traumatized for life.
fatal statistics
According to State Crime Records Bureau data, around 4,000 people lose their lives and hundreds are injured on Kerala roads every year.
Recently, six students of Government Medical College, Alappuzha met a tragic end when their car collided with a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus at Kalarcode, Alappuzha on the rainy night of December 2.
The car, which was carrying 11 first-year MBBS students, collided with the bus when they were on their way to watch a movie in Alappuzha city. Five of them died on the spot, while the sixth person succumbed to his injuries later. Preliminary investigation by the Kerala Motor Vehicles Department found the main cause of the accident to be careless driving.
a night to forget
It was raining heavily when Viyyur native Vinay Chandran (name changed), an IT professional at a US-based company in Hyderabad, boarded an inter-state bus from Thrissur to Hyderabad after his engagement in 2018 .
When the vehicle reached Kuthiran, a dangerous hilly terrain along the National Highway, it was moving at a very slow speed on the main road due to rain with traffic rules in force in the area in connection with road works as part of the six. -Lane Highway Tunnel Project in Thrissur District.
As the bus proceeded through the narrow path, a truck descending the slope derailed and collided with the bus.
“I was about to alert the woman sitting next to me about the speeding truck, when the truck hit the bus at high speed,” the young professional recalls with a shudder. The atmosphere echoed with screams.
The sirens of ambulances were piercing the silence of the night. It was dark all around. It was raining continuously and people voluntarily came forward to save the passengers from the debris.
By the time Vinay Chandran regained consciousness, he was on the hospital bed and the lower half of his body was covered with a sheet.
When he tried to move his limbs he felt unbearable pain. To save his life, doctors had to amputate his right leg, which was crushed in the accident. Still, Vinay Chandran says he was lucky to survive.
If the figures maintained by the State Crime Records Bureau are any indication, Kerala’s roads are becoming death traps.
Till October this year, 3,168 people died in 40,821 road accidents in Kerala. The number of deaths in 48,091 accidents in 2023 was 4,080, while in 2022, 4,317 people died in 43,910 accidents.
The number of accidents and deaths witnessed a decline in 2021 and 2020 with 3,429 and 2,979 deaths respectively due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown. However, 4,303 deaths occurred in 40,181 accidents in 2018 and 4,440 people lost their lives in 41,111 accidents in 2019.
contributing factors
Shiju Stanley, president of the Society for Emergency Medicine India, says the causes of road accidents range from increase in the number of vehicles in the state to faulty design of roads, speeding, poor condition of roads in many stretches and drug abuse. ,
Vehicles with poor safety ratings and reckless travel at night are also contributing to the worrying incidents. He says that its victims are mostly passengers of vehicles with poor safety rating.
The second reason is that people have started traveling at night to save time and avoid daytime traffic. According to Kerala Police, 60% of the deaths occurred in night accidents, although the share of accidents occurring at night is only 15%.
The speed of vehicles often increases during accidents at night. This has also increased the number of fatal accidents. Mr Stanley says this is evident given the accident rate among pilgrims, especially Sabarimala pilgrims.
An official of the Kerala Motor Vehicles Department says the chances of an accident are high when a tired devotee, who has been standing in queues for several hours for darshan, drives a vehicle.
Breath analysis data conducted on drivers of KSRTC buses who were on duty between July 21, 2021, and June 14, 2024, revealed that 319 persons, including drivers and conductors, came for duty under the influence of alcohol, costing hundreds of lives. Went. in danger due to which the state public utility was forced to take disciplinary action against them.
On 26 November, a lorry laden with wood ran over a group of people sleeping on a ‘closed road’ in Thrissur, killing five people and injuring seven others.
It was later revealed that the driver and the cleaner, who were driving the car at the time of the accident, were under the influence of alcohol.
Golden hour
Neurosurgeon and former Vice Chancellor of Kerala University B. Ekbal says that a large number of accident victims die during the golden hour, which is one hour after the accident.
Timely medical intervention is important to save life. He says that the delay in providing first aid and taking the victims to the hospital is proving fatal.
Dr Ekbal says a collaborative approach involving the health department, private hospitals, motor vehicles department, traffic police, professional organizations and other concerned agencies is the key to achieving sustainable improvements in reducing road accident deaths. Is.
Analysis of 2023 accident data by the National Transportation Planning and Research Center (NATPAC) shows that 50% of road accidents are caused by two-wheelers, followed by cars/SUVs (19%) and pedestrians (12%) .
Vulnerable road users mainly include two-wheelers, pedestrians, cyclists and three-wheeler drivers, who together contribute to 69% of road accident victims.
NATPAC director Samson Mathew says the geometry (gradient, turns, visibility and width) of Kerala’s roads are poor due to standard faulty design and non-availability of land to fix them in major stretches.
Additionally, the rainy season, which lasts for about six months in Kerala, worsens road conditions, including hydroplaning, a phenomenon where a thin layer of water forms between the tires and the road surface on wet roads. Due to which it becomes difficult to build roads. To effectively control or stop a vehicle, resulting in a vehicle collision or overturning.
inexperienced driver
Inexperienced drivers make the conditions worse on the roads. Mr Mathew says the state should urgently reform the driving test to address the shortcomings in its current format and eliminate outdated and unsafe vehicles.
According to Kerala Transport Commissioner CH Nagaraju, inadequate facilities for training in safe driving techniques contribute to the large number of road accidents in Kerala. He says driving tests also need to be upgraded to test applicants’ defensive driving skills.
“Road conditions and weather conditions vary in different locations and at different times. We cannot always drive at 60 kmph in all places and all conditions. The driver must adjust his driving speed. Most accidents occur because the driver is not assessing the speed of the vehicle properly. Drivers are unable to judge the speed of their own vehicle or that of other vehicles in the vicinity,” he says.
Vinayachandran, who lost his legs, tied the knot and returned to normal life a year and a half after the accident.
Leaving behind the scars of accidents and natural disaster, Shruti is in the process of rebuilding her life. But this is not the case with everyone.
published – December 19, 2024 11:50 PM IST
