Mumbai: A recent data published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) stated that over 48 per cent of fatal road accidents recorded last year in Mumbai were due to dangerous driving. The year 2019 recorded over 588 road accidents in which 483 lost their lives while 106 had sustained serious injuries. Interestingly, of the 483 fatalities, 393 constituted of males while 90 were females.
The report highlighted that overtaking vehicles and speeding on the roads were two of the causes of highest road fatalities in the financial capital in 2019. According to the NCRB report, 236 people died due to dangerous driving/ overtaking in 2019 while 94 sustained injuries, subsequently, overspeeding constituted 231 deaths and 22 injuries.
In a further bifurcation of vehicles that caused these fatal accidents, most were caused by two-wheelers followed by four-wheelers with 189 and 115 fatalities each. The other vehicles that led to road accidents fatalities were trucks/ lorry, threewheeler/autorickshaws and buses with 87, 42 and 29 deaths respectively.
The highest number of accidents in the city occurred during 9 pm to midnight and noon to 3 pm with 86 and 84 accidents respectively, of the 588 incidents recorded in 2019. According to the transport experts, these two time-frames are considered to have less congested roads, giving way for speeding as they do not fall under the peak hours.
A senior traffic police official said, night racing was rife in 2018 and 2019, but was completely stopped in the latter year owing to strict patrolling and nakabandis across the city to break the bike racing circuits. The noon time, however, hardly allows police to put up barricades in the day time, causing immense pressure to curb the speeding accidents.
On the other hand, there has been an overall decline in the number of traffic accidents in the country from 4,74,638 in 2018 to 4,67,171 in 2019, stated the NCRB report. While Maharashtra recorded 27,286 road accidents in 2019, Mumbai had recorded 588 road accidents as compared to 691 in the preceding year.
