Fatalities in the road corridors in the State have come down by 15.7% in January this year, but road accidents have gone up by 2.8% when compared to the corresponding period in 2019.

Number of fatalities reported in January 2019 was 459, but this has come down to 387 in January 2020. Number of road accidents in January 2019 was 3,886 and this has gone up to 3,995 in January 2020 as per the road accident statistics released by the Kerala Road Safety Authority.

Increasing the penalty for offences, enforcing headgear for motorcyclists and pillion riders and stern enforcement measures by the police and Motor Vehicles Department have also resulted in the dip in fatalities. “Compliance level by motorists has also gone up and this is reflected in the figures,” Road Safety Commissioner, KRSA, N. Shanker Reddy told The Hindu.

The dip is highest in Pathanamthitta district with deaths coming down from 22 in January 2019 to 9 in January 2020 (-59.1%), followed by Alappuzha (-41.3%) where the deaths had come down from 46 to 27. Idukki has registered a decline by -34.2% with deaths coming down from 38 in January 2019 to 25 in January 2020. In Thiruvananthapuram district, the fatalities have come down from 66 in January 2019 to 49 during the same month in 2020 registering a decline of -25.8%.

However, the concern for the law enforcers and the road safety experts is the fatalities going up by 12.5% each in Kottayam (36 deaths) and Wayanad districts (9 deaths) and by 7.7% in Kannur district (28 deaths) last month.

Of the 3,995 road accidents reported in January this year, the highest of 494 took place in Thiruvananthapuram district. But, still the capital district has registered a fall in the number of accidents coming down from 509 in 2019. Ernakulam district also registered a decline by 2.8% with accidents coming down from 319 in January 2019 to 310 in January 2020. Alappuzha district registered a decline by 13.1% with the accidents coming down from 374 in January 2019 to 325 in January 2020.

Surprisingly, the number of road accidents in Kannur district has gone up by 24.9% from 197 in January 2019 to 246 in January this year. Kottayam also registered an increase by 13.4% with the number going up from 261 to 296.