Yet another edition of Road Safety Week, and this paradox of awareness campaigns coexisting with accident rates has been the trend in Goa for a long time now. Whose safety and for whom, is it for public, is it for authority or is it a mockery? Goa roads, along with the people who use them, have long been vulnerable, owing to a variety of reasons. The safety awareness drives have become a bit of a joke in Goa. Traffic snarls turn acute during peak hours and indiscriminate parking of vehicles on either side of the roads and also middle of the roads in Panaji which houses many commercial and government establishments, add to the woes of the public. Potholes and patchy engineering make a mockery of road safety campaign. Dug up and unrepaired patches in the state capital pose danger to commuters. The accident rates have been on an upward trend in goa. At the ground level, traffic enforcement is unfortunately either seen as a ritual or as an exercise of authority, rather than as a preventive tool and a means to educate road users. Goan roads can successfully be compared to a circus, lunatic drivers, haphazard parking, animals roaming on the street, deep potholes, roads themselves being on the verge of rupturing to their core. There are serious problems. Mere campaigns may not be able to change it.
