Another life crushed, another driver vanishes: How long will Jammu stay silent ?

As the sun dipped over the horizon on Sunday evening, yet another grim scene unfolded on the Sidhra stretch of the Jammu highway; a man, critically injured and gasping for breath, lay helpless in the middle of the road while a crowd stood frozen around him.

I was riding home from my office when I saw a gathering ahead and instinctively slowed down. Parking my bike to the side, I walked closer and was met with a distressing sight; a man, severely wounded, lay unattended in the middle of the road. Around him stood nearly a dozen onlookers, including a J&K Police personnel, possibly a Special Police Officer (SPO). Yet no one stepped forward to transport him to safety.

Then, almost miraculously, an e-rickshaw driver appeared from the opposite side of the road. A man who seemed to be an official took charge and directed the policeman to help lift the victim into the rickshaw. A few of us quickly moved in, and together we managed to place the injured man inside the vehicle. The rickshaw driver sped off towards the hospital, his small electric three-wheeler suddenly transformed into an emergency ambulance.

I stayed behind to understand what had happened. Eyewitnesses said the man had been hit by a speeding car. The impact was so severe that the vehicle’s side mirror was left shattered on the road. The driver didn’t even stop instead he fled the scene, leaving behind a broken side mirror and a life lying in the middle of the road.

But this is not about this accident only. Road accidents in Jammu have turned into a daily routine. Behind every statistic is someone’s husband, father, brother, son or friend. The common factor in most cases? Negligence.

Our roads are now ruled by recklessness. Teenagers without licences freely speed through lanes, heavy trucks barrel down highways ignoring limits and e-rickshaw drivers weave dangerously through traffic with no regard for basic road etiquette. Add to that the drunk drivers and the countless potholes and broken roads and you have a recipe for daily disaster.

The situation is worsening. Every day, there’s a new victim and a new mourning family. Yet enforcement remains weak, and infrastructure continues to crumble. Despite Jammu being called a “Smart City,” basic amenities like proper street lighting are not still available in many areas. Road conditions, especially in places like Sidhra being a part of national highway is missing. They are not just missing instead they are deadly.

It’s high time the administration should work on to prevent this growing menace. Concrete steps must be implemented like; Strict monitoring of over-speeding and underage driving, installation of proper traffic signals and speed cameras, upgradation and maintenance of road structure and highways, special lanes and rules for different categories of vehicles with their monitoring, designated and 24 x 7 checkpoints to catch drunk and unlicenced drivers, rapid response systems for accident victims.

Moreover, the justice system must ensure that hit-and-run offenders don’t just run away. Many families never see the perpetrators brought to justice, as weak administrative systems allow them to escape.

Jammu cannot afford to let this become the new normal. We don’t need another name etched into the long list of road fatalities to act. We need a system that values life, not just headlines.

It’s time to stop standing around and start saving lives.