Chief Minister Dr.Pramod Sawant has diagnosed three main causes for the spate of accidents in our State but has not prescribed any steps to remedy the situation. According to Dr Sawant irresponsible rash and negligent driving is one of those three causes. Wouldn’t it be prudent for our Chief Minister to lead by example and ensure that his convoy does not violate the prescribed speed limits while also urging his Ministers and MLAs to strictly follow the speed limits?
Pramod Sawant has also cited the rising number of vehicles in Goa as a cause of accidents. The Chief Minister must realise that the Traffic and Transport department officials have miserably failed to ensure proper traffic management even in the cities. Panaji is a glaring example where the authorities under political pressure are not taking action against those hordes of Casino vehicles blatantly and illegally parked on the very busy Dayanand Bandodkar Marg which is a No Parking – No Stopping Road.
Chief Minister says drunken driving is another cause for rise in accidents. We have seen many such accidents by tourists who leave the Casinos in an inebriated state as alcohol flows round the clock. Government needs to urgently remedy this dangerous situation by instructing the police to stop turning a blind eye to such obvious abuses that congest our roads and jeopardise road safety. If the government really cares it should walk the talk and invest in modern technology, road safety signs, speed cameras and CCTV cameras and most importantly a well-run, well organised, motivated, adequately resourced police force committed to zero tolerance to any violation of law.
In dealing with rising accidents there needs to be a concerted and co-ordinated plan of action by the various concerned authorities. Pathetic condition of our roads should also be a matter of concern. We need a sincere road map to save any further lives from being lost on the roads. We have been losing one too many as the Government has no vision or strategy to deal with the spiralling number of accidents.
