Bengaluru: Road mishaps rise but cops stay clueless
, ET Bureau|
Updated: Dec 06, 2017, 11.14 AM IST
BENGALURU: India’s technology and startup capital loses two lives on an average every day to road accidents. Most of the victims are either youngsters or breadwinners. The data, however, are drowned in the din over the spike in new vehicles entering the already-congested roads.
The city police are working on a eight-year roadmap aiming to achieve a drastic reduction in deaths on city roads. The data, complied by the traffic police, show the city reported about 4,648 accidents till November end. Of them, 560 were fatal and 4,088 were non-fatal. “These are preventable deaths and most of those killed are youngsters," said Hithendra R, additional commissioner of police (traffic), Bengaluru City, said. “We have asked a private consultancy to prepare a vision document which will analyse road deaths and prepare a roadmap on how to reduce them."
The figures of the past three years show that traffic police station limits such as KR Puram, Electronic City, Whitefield, Peenya, Yelahanka and Jayanagar have reported the highest number of accidents in the city as compared to other stations. The document, Hithendra said, will the help the police improve their strategy to address the causes that lead to accidents. “The agency is being asked to study the accident black spots and suggest micro-level improvements," he said. The report is expected to be ready in two months.
It is, however, not the first time that such a report is being prepared. In 2015, a private consultancy, SLS Transport Training Institute, had prepared “Road Accidents in Bangalore - A Report". The police, however, overlooked many recommendations the report made.
This report had found that the accidents occurred more in the evening and late night hours and mostly on the weekends. Twowheeler riders, in the age group of 19-35, are the victims in most cases followed by car drivers.
Ashish Verma, a transportation planning expert working at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), said paying attention to three broad areas such as road engineering, traffic enforcement and driving behaviour would bring the number of accidents down. “Road engineering is not taken seriously and there should be an audit in respect of road safety."
Verma wanted a change in the driving licensing system. “The department issues licence to physically and technically fit drivers but that does not make them safe drivers," he said. He also suggested that the traffic police use technology for enforcement that would eliminate biases, corruption and selective implementation.
The city police are working on a eight-year roadmap aiming to achieve a drastic reduction in deaths on city roads. The data, complied by the traffic police, show the city reported about 4,648 accidents till November end. Of them, 560 were fatal and 4,088 were non-fatal. “These are preventable deaths and most of those killed are youngsters," said Hithendra R, additional commissioner of police (traffic), Bengaluru City, said. “We have asked a private consultancy to prepare a vision document which will analyse road deaths and prepare a roadmap on how to reduce them."
The figures of the past three years show that traffic police station limits such as KR Puram, Electronic City, Whitefield, Peenya, Yelahanka and Jayanagar have reported the highest number of accidents in the city as compared to other stations. The document, Hithendra said, will the help the police improve their strategy to address the causes that lead to accidents. “The agency is being asked to study the accident black spots and suggest micro-level improvements," he said. The report is expected to be ready in two months.
It is, however, not the first time that such a report is being prepared. In 2015, a private consultancy, SLS Transport Training Institute, had prepared “Road Accidents in Bangalore - A Report". The police, however, overlooked many recommendations the report made.
This report had found that the accidents occurred more in the evening and late night hours and mostly on the weekends. Twowheeler riders, in the age group of 19-35, are the victims in most cases followed by car drivers.
Ashish Verma, a transportation planning expert working at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), said paying attention to three broad areas such as road engineering, traffic enforcement and driving behaviour would bring the number of accidents down. “Road engineering is not taken seriously and there should be an audit in respect of road safety."
Verma wanted a change in the driving licensing system. “The department issues licence to physically and technically fit drivers but that does not make them safe drivers," he said. He also suggested that the traffic police use technology for enforcement that would eliminate biases, corruption and selective implementation.
