Recently, at least two deaths occurred within four days due to medical assistance delays caused by severe traffic congestion.
On June 9, a 40-year-old man from Nainital passed away after the ambulance transporting him to the hospital was trapped for hours in a traffic jam near Kainchi Dham, a well-known religious site visited by devotees of Baba Neem Karoli.
Jagmohan Singh was en route to a hospital in Haldwani after vomiting blood, but the ambulance became stuck near Kainchi Dham. By the time he reached the hospital, it was too late, according to his relatives.
Doctors pronounced him dead upon arrival at the hospital after a journey of more than five hours, which typically takes only two hours, his family reported.
His relative, Labhanshu Pinari, stated that he could have survived if the ambulance had not been caught in the traffic jam.
Just four days earlier, on June 5, an elderly man from Delhi died after being trapped in a major traffic jam in Mussoorie while being transported to medical care.
Kamal Kishore Tandon, 62, had traveled to Mussoorie for vacation and suddenly fell ill. His family was unable to obtain timely medical assistance due to a shortage of available ambulances and severe traffic congestion.
Even with police escort in their private car, Tandon’s family took over an hour to travel less than 4km to the nearest medical facility in Landour, where doctors declared him dead, his nephew Arjun Kapoor reported.
Both cases have raised alarms among residents concerning the government’s ability to manage the high volume of tourists during the summer months.
“This isn’t the first incident where people have died after being trapped in traffic jams in Uttarakhand. Unfortunately, such tragedies occur almost every year during tourist season, but authorities refuse to take action.
“They must enhance emergency response and traffic management systems. Infrastructure needs to be developed to handle the influx of tourists and pilgrims,” Prakash Dobhal, a resident of the Dharampur area in Dehradun, stated.
Social activist Anoop Nautiyal proposed the implementation of bike ambulances as first responders.
“Bike ambulances can navigate through traffic, reach patients more swiftly, and may save critical minutes in medical emergencies. The golden hour is vital,” Nautiyal, who also runs an NGO named Social Development for Communities, explained.
“We must critically assess whether our systems are equipped to respond when lives are at stake in traffic jams,” he added.
Nautiyal further recommended addressing known congestion points in popular areas such as Mussoorie, Nainital, Rishikesh, Joshimath, and the Char Dham Yatra routes to mitigate long traffic delays.
“Traffic regulation is necessary to manage the chaos. Overtaking tendencies among drivers should be curtailed, roads requiring repairs should be fixed promptly, and strict measures should be enforced against traffic rule violators,” he remarked.
“The government’s focus appears to be solely on attracting more tourists and pilgrims, whereas the priority should be on developing infrastructure capable of accommodating this surge,” Nautiyal concluded.
