Trying to escape corona, they fell victim to killer roads in UP

Despite all the tall claims and efforts, road accidents continue to be an epidemic in UP, killing more than 20,000 people every year, putting the state on the top of the national chart.

Uttar Pradesh is back in news for road accidents after a hiatus of one and a half months, with poor migrant workers in transit meeting with road accidents one after the other.

Police personnel taking an injured to hospital as 24 migrant labourers died and others got injured after the truck in which they were travelling collided with another truck in Auraiya on Saturday. (ANI Photo)

Since public transport is still not available despite some travel relaxations during the Covid-19 lockdown in place since March 25, poor labourers stranded in various states have embarked upon a ‘foot march’ or taking whatever travel means—truck, tractor-trolley, bicycle, motorcycle and even handcart that comes their way to reach home.

Authorities believe over-speeding facilitated by empty highways, desperation to reach destination early and fatigue of drivers are the primary reasons for such road mishaps.

“Apparently, over-speeding and fatigue resulting into sleepiness are the reasons for a few unfortunate road accidents that have happened recently, including the one in Unnao on Saturday,” transport commissioner, Dheeraj Sabhu said.

He said he had directed all the regional transport officers (RTOs) to deploy all the six interceptors on the highways fixing each interceptor’s duty for 16 hours a day in place of 6 hour duty in normal times. “We have asked them to ensure that any vehicle found over-speeding is intercepted and challaned,” Sahu said, adding, “Traffic police and highway/expressway authorities have their own interceptors.”

A retired transport department official said migrants were forced to take unsafe travel modes like trucks etc because governments were not providing proper transportation to them.

“Now, on the one hand governments are not able to provide a safe transport to these migrants, on the other hand truckers etc that are helping the poor workers reach their home are being threatened with action,” he said. This, he said would be a double whammy for the labourers.

Despite all the tall claims and efforts, road accidents continue to be an epidemic in UP, killing more than 20,000 people every year, putting the state on the top of the national chart. “As many as 22,655 people died and another 28,932 were injured in 43572 cases of road accidents in UP in 2019,” sources said. “So, scores of migrants who somehow escaped the lethal coronavirus in the states they were stranded in, were not spared by killer roads in UP,” they pointed out.