This article is written by Aditya, from Symbiosis Law School. This article deals with the pothole deaths in India. 

Introduction

A pothole is said to be more deadly than terrorism. In India, potholes are a very common thing and in fact, one person can see potholes in every one kilometre in India.

A pothole is basically a depression on any road surface or any plain ground too. Potholes are areas of road surface that have cracked, eroded and eventually form a hole. They start out as tiny cracks. If they’re not fixed right away then it can damage the entire road and sometimes the entire area. A pothole is formed by the force of water and abrasion. It is basically formed when a circular current of water carrying small pebbles and sediment begins to wear away a rock surface. The force of water and the sediment it carries is greater than the resistance of the rock. The process continues after it begins and the rock at that location continues to erode.

Many Geologists associate potholes with large volumes of very turbulent water. Potholes are a very common thing in a country like India. And in fact of the death happening due to potholes or people getting injured, still, it is not considered as an important and serious issue. Every year around 3,597 people die due to potholes. More than 30% of people die due to potholes. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways provided figures that over 9300 deaths, 25000 injured in the last three years due to potholes and more than 25,000 people are getting injured due to potholes. But still, it is not taken as a serious issue in India. Still, potholes are getting originated.

The main question which arises here is “who is responsible? Is it government or is it authorities or is it those people who have got the contract? Let’s understand further.

The problems of Potholes in India

To be frank, a topic like a pothole in India doesn’t need any introduction. It is a very common thing. Maximum people know what a pothole is. In Hindi, people call it “gaddha”. In India, almost every road has potholes. In fact, in every 5 kilometres, you’ll find a pothole. The size and depth of the pothole may vary from place to place. Potholes had to be taken seriously. Potholes are capable of causing serious or even fatal accidents. Despite our efforts to choose better leaders, it is a very sad feeling to see our country’s roads in these conditions. But if we leave politics aside, we will face constant losses and still do nothing. There are many pit death cases. For example, if the case I want to talk about is Manisha Bhoir. Manisha Bhoir died on July 8, falling off his bike and getting under the bus. The incident occurred after the woman hit a hole in a flooded street and fell. Four days later, a 29-year-old Mumbai man died after his two-wheeled vehicle slipped over a hole in the road and drove over a truck. These were just two cases I discussed. But the deep truth is that there are over 10,000 cases pending regarding the pit. Daily pit takes about 6 lives. Data varies from state to state.

According to reports, to date, Uttar Pradesh has the most pit deaths. Uttar Pradesh is followed by Maharashtra, then Haryana, Gujarat, Delhi, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal and others. According to official statistics, the pits claimed 11,836 lives and injured 36,421 people in India from 2013 to 2016. Each year the pit becomes more active during the monsoons or in the rain. Road safety is a very important thing. India has only 2 parts of motor vehicles in the world but about 12 of the deaths due to traffic accidents. According to research by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UNESCAP), road traffic crashes cost India about 3 of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per year, or about US dollars in absolute terms. 58,000 million.

The government gives a budget for making the road and once the budget is allotted, money is sanctioned to the contractor and then the materials required to make a road like cement, concrete and others, their company gets money and then labours are hired and the work starts. It looks simple and clear but it isn’t that much. It is easy to say that there is no gambling but we all know that there are gambling’s in the entire system. Yeah, I agree that weather is also responsible but with the weather, the quality of materials used is also responsible. The money is allotted according to the quality of material but authority takes money and orders the material which is of low quality. Hence the money is saved and it goes into their pocket. A weak or low quality of materials used for making roads is as injurious as cigarettes are injurious to human’s health. Governments and Civil Servants are also equally responsible because of their negligence done during the time of checking/inspection. If the officials catch the mistake, then there won’t be a bad quality of roads.

Corruption and greediness are also one of the factors whom we can say that due to them it is responsible for the bad quality of roads. Engineers are also responsible because they know that there is some gambling/corruption done but still they keep quiet.  Maybe they also get some money. It is primarily the responsibility of the developer who developed civic amenities along with the municipal operation of any authority who carries such work. There is no proper maintenance of the road. The roads need to be maintained and repaired from time to time. Well, I would say that somewhere our police system and judicial system is also responsible. Police don’t take actions against the case and as usual, our justice gets delayed so much. Just because of justice being delayed, people get the motivation to do these kinds of things. Negligence of the authorities responsible for it. Putting names is not what we are here for but if it is required the Municipal authorities should take care of several unrequired potholes. But they don’t they just create a new wide hole and leave it open for no reason at all even during rainy days the mud wets and many vehicles skit due to that too. Every year the deaths due to potholes are increasing and it will keep on increasing if things go in the same way. The only solution which every victim’s family gets is compensation. But is compensation enough? The drivers of the car/bike or the vehicle which he/she was driving are always being held responsible. Sometimes, they are not let to file a case against the authorities who made the road.

Stepping up its response to the global road safety crisis, the World Health Organization (WHO) dedicated the theme of World Health Day 2004, celebrated on 7 April, to road traffic injury prevention. This year’s slogan “Road Safety Is No Accident” emphasizes that road traffic injuries are not just by chance. Most such injuries are both predictable and preventable. Conventional thinking around the concept of “accidents” has changed drastically, as road traffic injuries have become one of the most important public health issues of the new century.

Ineffective justice system with lack of resources. Often people in power try to digress the incident and people without assistance are left with bare hands at the end. As pothole accidents can cause death and also if not, death there are higher chances of the victim getting injured this causes mental agony to the family and also the medical expenses get increased because of the injury caused. So, the compensation should be provided by the authorities for every victim who suffers due to this negligent act. Justice actually takes more time to be delivered to the victim. They are not taken seriously by responsible authorities nor they are adequately compensated; only the government Announces the compensation when an incident takes place or it becomes an issue for the Government. A grave issue faced by Indians as the politicians are busy in hiding large bucks behind huge road projects. It’s a known fact that every day 10 people die amidst accidents because of broad gaps on the road.

About getting justice for those people it’s a hectic process from one counter of a government office to another or a long litigation process. No evidence of mistake could also be a problem as this could be a human error from the department responsible for the maintenance of streets, manholes. Or in the case of Road, PWD. But it is very difficult to identify the culprit. The responsible authority should be answerable on these issues which become the cause of accident/ death and traffic jams. They might laugh and leave it but the victim is the one who will remember this the whole life. They are neglected as such this is also negligence of municipal authority. Even before the rain, they are never put to test whether that would last long in heavy rains. And as facts show they never do last its all water-filled and many have been victims to those.

Suggestions

Justice delayed is justice denied. It is very common in India that justice is not given easily. Sometimes it takes years to get justice. Looking at the existing ones there is a quiet need to change the pothole laws. Pothole laws should be changed to some extent and we can also take certain measures such as keeping an eye on traffic patterns and reporting potholes to our state or local transportation department. In charge of Road transportation department of that particular area should be punished for such an accident. He must be responsible for monitoring and repairing the Road in his locality. Full compensations to be paid to the victim by local authority / Administration. An online portal to be made for public use to lodge such complaints of the bad condition of the road. An officer to be appointed to assist all complaints. There need to be provisions to take care of such negligence and there need to be a proper law to provide compensation in such accidents or god forbid deaths of such innocent riders. Heavy compensation to be levied from the contractor, who built the road and from the salary of the officials, who are responsible for ensuring quality at the time of construction as well as maintenance in a proportion fixed by the law.

Aiming to strengthen the law, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act tried to address the issue of liability for road defects. For any traffic accident injury or death caused by faulty road design and engineering, the competent authority responsible for building and maintaining the road will be penalized with an amount of ₹ 1 lakh. The bill orders that safety standards are set by the Central government. Unfortunately, road contractors and engineers will still not be held criminally answerable for causing deaths and injuries, which organisations just like the Save Life Foundation are demanding. But a fine, whether or not it’s a little amount, could be a step within the right direction.

Road safety could be a multisectoral issue. At a policy level, the primary step is to make an enabling framework that weaves in numerous progressive aspects across stakeholder sectors under one legislation. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017 aims to address various systemic problems by providing a homogeneous driver license system, protecting children and vulnerable road users, rationalizing fines and creating an accountability system in road construction. The bill was submitted to the last Monsoon Session Rajya Sabha; a year later, it still awaits the transition. The bill is not a panacea for all problems, but it is the primary step towards ensuring that deaths from traffic accidents do not occur.

Conclusion

With this, I hope you are clear how a pothole is an important issue. Well, it’s true that pothole causes much more deaths than terrorism. A pothole is a severe issue and if not solved then it can be more dangerous. Deaths are increasing every year. Hope you have understood who is responsible and how our laws need to be strengthened. Anyways if you see anything happening around you then inform the higher authority.

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