Maharashtra sees five-fold leap in road mishaps in 3 years

Road accidents in the state have seen a five-fold jump in the last three years, according to the statistics released by the Highway Police Department. Nearly 47 per cent of the deaths involved two-wheeler riders and pedestrians. Maharashtra has over 17,757 kms of Highways.

According to data from the Mumbai Traffic Police, while 447 people were killed in 420 crashes in 2019, 387 people succumbed to their injuries caused in 376 crashes in 2021. 2020 saw 349 casualties with the dip being attributed to lockdown during the first wave of the Covid-19 restrictions.

While fatal accidents in Mumbai took a dip in 2022 showing a further decrease in cases in the first half of the year with 156 people dying in 154 crashes till June. In 2019, 233 people were killed in 215 crashes in the same period. In 2021, 202 people were killed in road accidents during the period.

Compared to the corresponding period in the rest of Maharashtra, the fatalities continued to rise. The fatalities in the state, as per Maharashtra Highway Traffic Police, in the first six months of this year increased to 8,068 when compared to 7,069 in the same period 2019.

In 2021, about 6,837 people were killed till June. Further, fatalities in the state show an increasing trend over the past few years. About 12,788 people were killed in crashes in 2019 while the number rose to 13,528 in 2021.

Due to the pandemic-induced lockdown, fatalities had decreased to 11,569 in 2020. “The rise in fatal accidents is due to increased vehicular movements after two years of Covid pandemic restrictions. Most of the accidents on the state roads were due to the driver's fault and road engineering errors,” explained a senior official with the state highway police.

Deaths and serious injuries due to the accidents following traffic rules violations have seen a steep increase compared to last year. “While India accounts for a mere 3% of the world’s vehicular population, a shocking 12% of the world’s road fatalities are reported in India. Speeding is the biggest menace. The primary causes are rash driving, over-speeding, traffic signal violations, ignoring seat belt and helmet rules, wrong side driving and dangerous overtaking,” said an RTO official.

The most common traffic violations reported were speeding, avoiding use of helmets, driving under the influence of alcohol, overtaking, negligence and rash driving for causing accidents.

“The speeding vehicle coming down to Borghat on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway loses control because of the engineering error on the stretch of road which is more winding than normal,” claimed road safety expert Vinayak Joshi on the cause of higher accidents reported on Mumbai Pune Expressway.

State transport commissioner Avinash Dhakne said that his team will review the blackspots on accident-prone roads to reduce crashes and aim to reduce fatalities by 50 per cent in five years.

Published on: Friday, August 05, 2022, 09:13 AM IST