Overspeeding, Overloading Claim Lives on Bahawalnagar Roads

(By Sohail Siddique, Correspondent South Asian Chronicle from Bahawalnagar District)

The roads of District Bahawalnagar, particularly those in Fort Abbas and Marot tehsils have increasingly become symbols of fear, tragedy and loss. Almost every day, precious human lives are being lost in horrific road accidents, leaving families devastated and communities mourning the loss of innocent children, young people and elderly citizens.A recent tragic accident within the jurisdiction of Marot Police Station, registered under FIR No. 348/26, in which an allegedly speeding and negligently driven passenger bus caused multiple casualties and sent several citizens to hospital, is yet another painful reminder of the alarming situation prevailing on the district’s roads.The prompt registration of the case by Marot Police following the accident is certainly appreciable. However, registration of an FIR alone cannot resolve the problem. What is urgently required is a serious and sustained effort to identify and eliminate the root causes behind these recurring accidents.
As a human rights and social worker, witnessing such accidents and the desperate efforts of rescue teams is deeply distressing. The situation becomes even more alarming in remote rural areas, where Rescue 1122 teams sometimes face serious difficulties in reaching accident sites in time because of long distances and inadequate road access.The major causes behind these tragedies include poor maintenance and lack of fitness of passenger vehicles, reckless overspeeding and overloading driven by the desire to earn more money, and serious negligence on the part of transport stand and route operators.Human lives cannot be treated as commodities. The continued operation of poorly maintained vehicles, excessive passenger loading and dangerous driving practices represents a serious threat to public safety.We cannot remain silent spectators while families continue to lose their loved ones on our roads.We therefore urge the Deputy Commissioner Bahawalnagar, District Police Officer Bahawalnagar, Assistant Commissioner Fort Abbas, Punjab Transport Minister and Secretary Regional Transport Authority (RTA) to take immediate and practical measures to address the crisis.
Emergency meetings should be convened at the tehsil level to ensure strict implementation of road safety SOPs. Unfit and substandard passenger vehicles should be immediately taken off the roads, while route permits of habitual violators should be cancelled in accordance with law.
Mandatory mechanical inspection and fitness checks of passenger vehicles must be ensured before they are allowed to operate on public routes. At the same time, accountability should not be limited to drivers alone. Where negligence by transport stand owners, operators or other responsible persons contributes to an accident, they too should face strict legal action.The authorities must move beyond temporary responses after accidents and adopt a preventive strategy. Regular vehicle inspections, enforcement against overloading and overspeeding, strict monitoring of transport routes and effective accountability can save countless lives.
Every life lost on these roads is not merely a statistic it represents a family shattered, children deprived of parents, and communities robbed of loved ones.
The people of Fort Abbas, Marot and other remote areas of Bahawalnagar deserve safe roads and reliable public transport.