Of the numerous problems that our country is facing, increasing number of traffic accidents is one of the most serious problems resulting in the loss of lives of hundreds of commuters and number of injured reaches to thousands. With these, the losses of millions of Afghanis incurred in the form of damaged vehicles and roads are the losses that our meager economy cannot bear easily.

There can be many reasons responsible for these accidents but let’s start our observation with a pleasant reality that comparing to the years before the democratic government, condition of roads has improved a lot and we can claim that our roads improved better than any other country in the region. According to some passengers and drivers, these smooth and well-paved roads make the drivers to over-speed and thus result in accidents.

One of the main reasons of these accidents is the ignorance of traffic laws by the drivers. Unfortunately, majority of the drivers have succeeded in acquiring a driving license but as far as their knowledge about the traffic laws and signals are concerned, they seem to be unaware of them.

The basic reason behind this carelessness of drivers is the lack of fear for any kind of punishment. Anyone who breaks a traffic law deliberately is sure that he will not have to face any kind of strict punishment in this regard. In most of the cases, they are released after offering the bribe of 100-200 Afghanis to the traffic police sergeant or constable. On the other hand, especially in capital city Kabul, majority of people have relations with the high government officials and when they are caught on violation of a traffic law, they take advantage of their relations and approach and traffic police seems to be helpless in punishing them.

In the recent years, the careless and problematic driving of kids has become a matter of concern for the citizens. These kids, who are below the legal age to drive, belong to influential families and thus nothing can be done against them as well.

Increasing number of vehicles has also been identified as the main reason of traffic blockades and it is quite strange that when our roads do not have capacity to facilitate vehicles any more, why not the registration of new vehicles should be stopped. If this is not the solution of the problem, then plans should be made to expand the length of roads and make better changes in the management of traffic like parking management and others.

Anyhow, if some serious steps were not taken, the traffic problems will get more panicking in the future.