Patna, Feb. 23: Mohamed Adil, a student of a city school, will not be able to take the board exams that began today. He will be spending this month lying on a bed in Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, nursing injuries he sustained in an accident.

An errant auto hit the 17-year-old while he was on his way home on the evening of February 5. Adil — whose stomach was pierced by an iron rod — is not the only one who met with such a mishap on city roads. The authorities claim the number of road mishaps has doubled in the past five years because of an unprecedented rise in the number of cars and autorickshaws.

“The traffic in Patna is chaotic. The roads of the city are congested and illegally encroached. The number of vehicles has increased but the roads have not been widened,” said Parvez Ahmed Kumar, a resident of Digha road area.

Traffic department officials, however, claim that pedestrians and commuters complicate problems on the roads.

Most commuters ignore or disregard traffic rules, said a senior officer of the traffic department. An officer of the traffic department said the crunch in manpower is a major cause of concern. Out of a sanctioned strength of 660, only 178 personnel have been deputed in Patna. The technology used by the department is also obsolete, he added. Despite the handicaps, the department was trying its best to prevent mishaps and manage the voluminous traffic.

“We are running a capsule programme in all schools of the capital, for students aged between 12 and 14. We are also trying to crackdown on the offenders,” said Ajit Kumar Sinha, the superintendent of police (traffic). But the results are yet to be seen.

Patna Medical College and Hospital deputy director R.N. Sinha said: “We receive several road accident cases everyday. Over 80 per cent of them involve major injuries. There are also large number of spot deaths and death on arrival cases. The number of recoveries in road accidents is very low. Those who survive often have to live with some handicap for the rest of their lives.”