Balwant Garg Faridkot, November 7 Overloaded vehicles and vehicles with loads hanging on roads in poor visibility due to stubble burning, are adding to mishaps on national and state highways in the area. In the paddy harvesting season, truckers carry paddy bags more than double of their capacity. As the Food Supplies Department is acting speedily to ensure fast lifting and transportation of paddy from procurement centres to rice mills, the Transport Department has turned a blind eye to these overloaded vehicles. When the visibility is poor due to a thick layer of smoke from the stubble burning, there have occured many incidents of ‘mound’ of these loaded paddy bags coming crumbling on vehicles passing by their side or running behind them. By overloading their vehicles, owners and drivers of these trucks are not only putting the life of others to risk but also threatening their own lives. These vehicles caused 809 fatal accidents in Punjab in 2017, revealed the Road Accidents Report of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The report reads that involvement of these overloaded vehicles in road accidents led to 561 deaths in the state in 2017 and left 332 persons with grievous injuries. As these overloaded vehicle are less stable, difficult to steer and take longer to stop, other than blocking traffic on already congested roads, these are also threatening road safety and are carrying risk of the fatal accidents on the road roads.

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