The Hindu Business Line : Road safety, a casualty in Kerala

KERALA really rocks during the Christmas-New Year week, with visitors from both within and outside the country making a beeline to God's Own Country. The State also swings during the week; this was reflected in the high sales of liquor during the last few days of 2005.

Quick on the draw with figures, the State beverages corporation, sole licensee to sell both the hard stuff (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) and beer in Kerala, has claimed a new high with aggregate sales of around Rs 33 crore on three days — December 24, 25 and 31, 2005. Good for the liquor and beer manufacturers and bad for the liver of the consumers.

There is another record that Kerala is not too pleased about — the unacceptably high number of road accidents, many of them fatal. There are many who see a direct correlation between the liquor intake and the road accidents, and they cannot be faulted for linking the two.

The number of deaths arising out of road accidents was around 2,750 in 2004 and, in all likelihood, the number will cross 3,000 in 2005. While it is difficult to pinpoint one particular type of vehicle to be the main cause of these accidents, there is no denying the deadly role played by the yellow-and-red `tipper lorries' in Kerala's shameful record on road safety.

A `tipper lorry' is basically a 10-tonne truck with a powerful build and a hydraulic discharge capability for the load it carries which, of late, has become monotonously predictable — sand.

True, there exists a ban on sand-mining from the State's inland rivers, but the ban is easily flouted. A senior police official admitted that while sand-mining is a cognisable offence, a dubious lacuna in the law ensures that those breaking this law can walk free without too much difficulty.

"Yes, the police can register a case and arrest without a warrant those charged with mining sand. But, strangely, the police is not deemed the competent authority to move the court in this instance. Instead, these powers have been vested with either an officer of the Revenue Department or one from the Mining and Geology Department. This is an outstanding exception as, in all other cases, the police is considered competent enough to chargesheet those breaking the law," says the police officer.

Allegedly, many of the tipper lorry drivers are drunk as they rush madly about the State's narrow by-lanes, though the usage pattern of these trucks ensures that there are frequent accidents even if the driver is stone-cold sober.

The `tippers' are hired for a certain number of hours by those buying or selling sand. During this period they try to ply the maximum number of trips between the loading and offloading points. Blind speeding and accidents are a natural corollary.

The tippers, built like armoured cars, need only to gently side-swipe a car to flatten it, like a fly with a swatter. Even the heavier metal-sheet of a bus is no better protection, as was seen in Changanassery, in central Travancore, a couple of days after Christmas.

The accident stole the lives of 10 innocent people, and most of the casualties were children. And it was no one-off incident as two days before Christmas, another such accident in nearby Alappuzha claimed a similar number of lives. On this occasion, it is alleged that the tipper lorry driver had come straight from a local `toddy' bar.

The tipper lorry-related accidents continue to snuff out innocent lives, but the people of Kerala seem to be taking it rather tamely. The reason being attributed is the political allegiance of the sand mining mafia — the tipper lorry owners are no feather-weights as each one of them owns between 20 and 40 such trucks.

Add to their considerable political weight the patronage of various trade unions, as their workers are employed in this activity that is hell-bent on making a flat land out of a region otherwise known for its hills and valleys.

True, the Kerala Government cannot be accused of total inertia as it is planning to install speed governors on all tipper lorries to ensure they do not cross the prescribed speed limits. But it is easier said than done if one is to go by the fate of the much-touted Highway Patrol. Introduced a couple of years back to crack down on violation of traffic rules on highways, the patrol is today a spent force, says the senior police officer.

"Almost every Keralite today is connected to one political party or the other. Enforcement of traffic rules often becomes a casualty as this political connection comes to the rescue of most violators of traffic rules. The police department cuts a sorry figure as senior politicians themselves decide the violators deserve special treatment," says the police officer.

Over 80 per cent of road accidents occur due to carelessness of the drivers, but bad road conditions, lack of concern for fellow motorists and careless pedestrians, all add to the problem.

The biggest culprit, however, is the unacceptably large number of vehicles on the roads. Kerala has over 6,500 vehicles for every 100 square kilometres, against the all-India average of over1,600 vehicles.

Clearly, it does not matter whether the State is inebriated or not. Accidents are bound to rise when the infrastructure cannot support the increasing number of vehicles. While statisticians may strive to connect drunken driving and road accidents, the incidence of tipper lorry-related fatal accidents can no longer be ignored.