Another heart-wrenching accident in Doda district has once again exposed the grim state of road infrastructure and traffic management in Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory. The tragedy—rooted in years of administrative apathy—is a direct outcome of a dangerously dilapidated road, persistently muddy terrain due to poor drainage, and reckless overloading of passenger vehicles. It is not just an unfortunate mishap, but a preventable disaster that reflects systemic failure.
On Tuesday, a passenger Tempo Traveller en route from Alguḍ village to Doda town, plunged 300 feet into a gorge near the Ponda area on Bharat Road. Seven lives were lost, including a woman and a four-year-old child, while fifteen others were injured—three of them critically and rushed to GMC Jammu, while the rest are undergoing treatment at GMC Doda. The vehicle, meant to carry 12 passengers, had 22 on board at the time of the accident, highlighting blatant violations of traffic norms.
Locals have been demanding repairs to the stretch for years. The road, already in shambles, had turned treacherously slippery due to rains and mud accumulation. Yet, the pleas for its maintenance have fallen on deaf ears, year after year. It is this very negligence that turned a routine commute into a deadly ordeal.
Notably, Jammu and Kashmir has already reported a staggering 4,990 road accidents in 2024 alone, resulting in 703 deaths and injuries to 6,820 people. These numbers are not just statistics—they are a glaring indictment of crumbling infrastructure, poor enforcement, and systemic indifference. How many more lives must be lost before the administration awakens to its responsibility?
The Jammu and Kashmir UT Government cannot escape responsibility for this tragedy. Both the Roads & Buildings Department and the Traffic Police have failed the people. The absence of preventive measures, the lack of monitoring of overloading, and the unwillingness to address known infrastructural risks directly contributed to the accident. What were the traffic authorities doing when the vehicle carrying nearly double its capacity was allowed to ply through a hazardous stretch?
Accountability must be fixed—not just through routine inquiries but through administrative action against those responsible. It is no longer acceptable to treat such incidents as isolated occurrences. The people of Doda have every right to be angry. Their lives cannot be collateral damage to the government’s inertia.
If the administration is truly serious about saving lives, it must act with urgency—repair the roads, enforce transport norms rigorously, and punish those who endanger public safety through inaction or negligence. Tragedies like these are not caused by fate, but by failure—failure of governance, of vigilance, and of moral responsibility.
