Moved by school bus mishap that killed 23 children and three others on Monday evening near Nurpur in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur on Tuesday said the government will constitute a committee to give suggestions to prevent such a tragedy in future.

“We will take all necessary steps to prevent such tragedies,” he said, holding that he had already ordered a magisterial inquiry into it. The ill fated school was allegedly carrying the children more than capacity.

Although it is for the first time that any school bus is involved in such a big tragedy in HP, the road accidents are very common in the hill state, often for similar reasons, which extend from bad roads in tough terrain, over speeding, overcrowding to negligent or drunken driving. The highway patrolling by the Police is almost missing in start roads, except for some busy highways.

Around 1,000 persons reportedly lose their lives in road accidents in HP every year on an average. (The death rate in road accidents in HP is on the higher side in the country).

The successive state governments have allegedly satisfying themselve by ordering inquiries into cause of accidents every time, only to forget them later. None has bothered to formulate and implement a concrete action plan on road safety in HP.

According to data, the state is witness to over 3,000 road accidents every year. The bus accidents are a major cause of worry in the state, as they lead to very high numbers of causalities in one go. (The state has seen bus accidents with even more than 50 casualties in the past).

HP generally has narrow roads negotiating with the hills, with rivers or local khads flowing at a depth. The chance of survival is very less whenever a bus plunges into the steep gorge, rolling down with speed. The absence of crash barriers aside roads in HP, even on tough stretches, makes it all the more inevitable.

As per sources, over 350 black spots were identified across the state where accidents occur frequently, but most of them continues to be so for lack of co-ordination between state government departments.