In 6 months, Gurugram saw most road fatalities in state

GURUGRAM: The city has recorded the highest number of road fatalities in Haryana in the first six months of this year. Between January and June, 235 people lost their lives in road accidents in the district, reveals a report prepared by Haryana Vision Zero (HVZ), an initiative by the state government that addresses issues on road safety while creating awareness among commuters.

Gurugram is followed by Sonipat which reported 186 deaths in the same period. While Karnal reported 180 deaths, the number for Panipat is 161 and that for Jhajjar is 160, says the report titled ‘Haryana Crash Assessment Report 2019’ that was released last week in Chandigarh.
Experts have attributed Gurugram’s high death toll to poor infrastructure and engineering of roads. “Gurugram has the worst infrastructure when it comes to its roads. The intersections are poorly designed. There are no facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. I don’t think there is even a single walkable footpath,” said Sarika Panda Bhatt, programme coordinator, HVZ.
The report states that April and December are the most critical months for Gurugram when it comes to road casualties and that most deaths have taken place between 6pm and 9pm. “The fatalities are higher on national highways where 35% of the cases have occurred. Pedestrians and two-wheeler riders are the most vulnerable with a percentage share of 45% and 38% respectively of all the victims,” the report states.
A total of 21 ‘black spots’--areas which are especially prone to road deaths--have been identified by HVZ. These include Signature Chowk, Jharsa Chowk, Rajiv Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk, Khandsa Cut, Narsinghpur Cut, IMT Manesar Chowk, Vatika Chowk, Subhash Chowk, among others.
Rohit Baluja, a member of the Haryana Road Safety Council and president of Institute of Road Traffic Education, Haryana, stresses on the need for better road and traffic engineering.
“If you don’t define the road, the behaviour of people also does not get defined. Another big problem is that neither the engineers and nor the police are trained,” he said.
Another reason that the road safety experts cite is the speed limit. “The roads in Gurugram are wider which encourages driving at high speed. There is a dire need to curtail the speed limit by engineering. Speed tables can be constructed to reduce the speed limit,” said Gurpreet Singh, senior road safety associate, HVZ.
“We conducted a trial run to check pedestrian safety at Shankar Chowk recently. Most of the accidents are the clashes between pedestrians and vehicles and we are taking steps to reduce the number of accidents,” said Himanshu Garg, DCP traffic, Gurugram.
As per the report, Haryana accounted for 3.3% of road casualties in India in 2018 when as many as 5,118 people died and 10,020 were injured. The state ranked third among the Indian states, higher than its neighbours Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh which ranked fourth, sixth and tenth respectively in terms of deaths per lakh population due to road accidents.