Among the 107 fatalities, 46 were two-wheeler riders, 32 pedestrians, 13 cyclists and one was a rickshaw puller. (Express photo by Jaipal Singh/Image used for representational purpose)
RECEIVED WISDOM says accidents usually take place at night when drivers are blinded by headlights, people are in a hurry to get home and may have imbibed too. But Chandigarh is clearly different. The roads in this UT are more accident prone during the day. As many as 206 accidents, fatal and non-fatal, out of a total of 342 took place in broad daylight in 2017, a study conducted by UT traffic police says. While 54 fatal and 152 non-fatal accidents took place in the daytime, 49 fatal and 87 non-fatal accidents took place at night. For the pruposes of the study, a daytime is counted as 6 am to 8pm, night time between 8 pm and 6 am.
The study, published in Road Accident Analysis Book-2018, suggests that 312 road accidents out of a total 342 occurred due to speeding. In fact, the study says speeding is the reason behind 93.85 per cent road accidents in Chandigarh.
SSP (UT) Shashank Anand said, “Two main facts emerged from this study. First: The exceeding speed over the permissible limit is the main reason behind the maximum road accidents. Second: Day hours are the most accident prone. We are planning a strategy to work on both the factors. Nailing the speeding vehicles will be our top priority this year during day hours. In 2016, 151 people were killed in road accidents and at that time, we decided to bring down the number of fatal accidents below 120 and we managed it. This time, we have decided to bring the number of fatal accidents below 100 in 2018.”
The study attributed just 10 accidents out of 342 to drink driving, four to jumping red signal, one to using mobile phone while driving, four to weather conditions and two to wrong-flank driving. And the victims are usually those with fewer or no wheels – 85.03 per cent of those killed on the roads of UT were pedestrians, cyclists and two-wheeler riders. Only 14.97 per cent victims were riding four-wheelers.
Among the 107 fatalities, 46 were two-wheeler riders, 32 pedestrians, 13 cyclists and one was a rickshaw puller. The study says there were fewer accidents in 2017 compared to 2016.
In 2016, 151 people lost their lives in 428 road accidents and in 2017, 107 people lost their lives in 342 accidents. The Road Accident Analysis Book-2018 were released by UT Administrator V P Singh Badnore during the 29th Road Safety Week-2018, which concluded on April 30.