Blood on Allahabad roads refuses to dry up: 45 fatal accidents in January alone

ALLAHABAD: Promised efforts of the traffic police to curb accidents notwithstanding, there has been no let-up in bloodspill on city roads this year. In fact, the numbers have only gone up, even if marginally.
As many as 45 people lost their lives and 53 were injured in 109 road accidents in January. Most of the victims who died were in the 18-35 age group. During the corresponding period in 2019, there were 103 accidents, which claimed 42 lives and left 68 injured.
The graph is curiously going north at a time city police say they are analysing each and every accident to find out how and why it happened and whether it could have been averted.
Allahabad SSP Satyarth Anirudh Pankaj said speeding was the single largest factor behind majority of accidents. “We are focussed on checking reckless driving. Three police teams equipped with speed guns are manning 22 streets identified as accident-prone. Police stations are also tightening the noose around speed limit violators,” he said.
To make their plan foolproof, the SSP said, traffic police had decided to rope in educational institutions to spread the message of road safety. “Safe driving practices are no secret, but people choose to ignore them all the time. By roping in students to spread the word, we hope to make city streets safer,” he added.
Despite having the lowest number of black spots — only 10 on national highways, state highways and major city arteries combined — among districts, as many as 570 people lost their lives and over 900 were injured in 1,365 road accidents in Allahabad last year.
The summer of 2019 recorded the maximum bloodspill. June saw 71 fatal accidents, followed by March with 68 and May with 59. December, on the other hand, saw 33 deaths and November 43.