Road mishaps kill 34 people daily in North

SEVEN PEOPLE WERE KILLED WHILE WALKING OR CYCLING IN ROAD CRASHES ACROSS HARYANA, PUNJAB, CHANDIGARH, HP AND J&K LAST YEAR

CHANDIGARH : Everyday at least seven people were killed while walking or cycling last year in road crashes across Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, according to ‘Road Accidents in India-2016’ report of Union ministry of road transport.

Alarmingly, as many as 34 human lives were snuffed out daily on the roads of the four northern states and Union Territory (UT) Chandigarh as the road accidents claimed a whopping 12,481 lives in 2016 as compared to 11,914 people killed in road accidents in 2015.

In Punjab alone, 5,077 people died in road crashes from January to December, with an average of 14 people daily.

Equally bloody was the scene in Haryana where death toll in road crashes last year was 5024.

While the road accidents in Himachal Pradesh claimed 1,271 lives, the toll in J&K was 958.

The City Beautiful roads witnessed death of 151 people in 2016, up from 129 in 2015.

VULNERABLE PEDESTRIANS

The scrutiny of the data points out that pedestrians are the most vulnerable lot.

In Haryana 1,596 pedestrians, including 180 women, were killed. Haryana stood at the fourth slot — after Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh — in death of pedestrians on the roads.

In Punjab, 433 pedestrians,

including 60 women, lost their lives.

A total of 2,339 pedestrians were killed due to apparent rash driving in the region. Of these, 214 were in Himachal, 58 in J&K and 38 in Chandigarh.

Similarly, 333 cyclists were killed last year across the region--102 in Haryana, 202 in Punjab, and 28 in Chandigarh and one in J&K.

‘SOLUTION LIES IN HAVING FOOTPATHS’ “The solution lies in having footpaths or safe walking space. The Punjab and Haryana high court is seized of this vital issue,” Navdeep Asija, a leading road safety expert, says. MORE DEATHS IN CITIES OF PUNJAB, HARYANA “From 2013 to 2015, the share of pedestrian and cyclist deaths in total road accidents deaths is on the rise in urban cities of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh,” said Asija, who has petitioned the high court, seeking directions for the “right to walk”. “Over 50% fatalities out of the total road accident deaths in cities such as Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Mohali and Bathinda are of the pedestrians or cyclists.”

MATTER IN HIGH COURT The Punjab and Haryana high court has issued a notice in this

WITHOUT LICENCE, HIT-AND-RUN CASES

Shockingly, the Bjp-ruled Haryana is among the top seven states in the country where 2,018 drivers involved in the road accidents were without licence.

In Himachal, 1,026 accidents were recorded in this category, followed by 588 in Jammu and Kashmir, 381 in Punjab. There was no such accident in Chandigarh. Behind a majority of accidents in Punjab and Haryana, the drivers involved were Class 10 pass-outs.

While drivers in Punjab who dropped out of school after Class 8 caused the minimum 902 accidents, those qualified above Class 10 were involved in maximum 2,207 road crashes.