36 people killed everyday last year in road accidents
MUMBAI: On average, 36 people lost their lives every day in Maharashtra in road accidents last year, despite partial travel restrictions prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The statistics compiled by the Maharashtra Highway Safety Patrol revealed that 13,346 people died and 15,922 people got injured in 29,292 accidents in 2021. The death toll is up by 1,777 as compared to 2020.
In the past 5 years, a total of 63,475 people have died in 1,58,960 accidents in the state.
Last year, Nashik and Pune regions recorded the highest number of road accident deaths whereas Mumbai saw a decrease from 288 deaths in 2020 to 277 deaths last year. In 2021, 862 deaths were recorded in Nashik rural, 798 in Pune rural and 706 in Ahmednagar.
According to the police, speeding remains the leading cause of deaths in crashes, especially on highways. “Most of the fatalities in 2021 involved twowheeler riders or pillions. More people have died on straight roads across the state compared to curved roads as per our observation. Moreover in small cities drivers do not follow traffic rules leading to head-on collisions,” said an officer from State Highway Police.
Data released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) showed that in 2020, Maharashtra ranked sixth with 24,971 accidents, but saw the second-highest number of fatalities 11,569, after 22,655 in Uttar Pradesh. According to the NCRB report, most accidents in 2020 took place during the peak evening time between 6 pm and 9 pm.
Kulwant Sarangal, Additional Director General of Highway Police said measures are being taken to curb crashes. “We have been working closely with various organizations to try to find out the causes of accidents and bring down the fatalities, as is done on Mumbai-Pune Expressway where we are working on a project called zero fatalities,” said Sarangal.
Officials also said that since March 2021, they have begun an intensive drive to book violators through an e-challan system.
With the help of NGOs and local bodies, the police is also taking help to provide first aid to accident victims and assist the police to take them to nearby trauma centres and hospitals.
The police have started capacity building at spots identified as accident-prone areas to lower the fatalities. The police have also positioned cranes and emergency vehicles near identified hot spots so that the victims can get immediate medical assistance. Among highways, the most number of accidents were reported on the Mumbai-Agra highway and Mumbai-Kolhapur Highway, making them the most dangerous stretches in state.
Traffic experts said that traditionally, for any accident or crash, the major cause is driver/ human error more than the fault with road infrastructure or vehicle-related factors. Sometimes, there might be combinations of these factors which might lead to accidents. Piyush Tewari, CEO and founder, SaveLIFE Foundation, said that overspeeding is one of the most common causes of road crash fatalities.