The traffic police book revealed that the total registered motor vehicles in 2019 were six per cent more than the overall population. (File)
The UT witnessed a socio-economy loss of Rs 110 crore in 2019 as a result of the 305 road accidents that took place in the city, including 100 fatal accidents in which 104 people lost their lives, states a detailed study compiled in the UT traffic police’s annual report ‘Road Safety in Chandigarh-2019’. The loss was calculated as per the standards of the World Bank and with the assistance of the road safety experts.
The traffic police book also revealed that the total registered motor vehicles in 2019 were six per cent more than the overall population. It said that the total population of Chandigarh was 11,35,084, while the number of registered motor vehicles were 12,05,239.
The number of fatal accidents reported in the UT in 2019 was also higher than in 2018. As many as 104 people died in accidents in 2019, while 98 died in 2018.
The Chandigarh traffic police has calculated the socio-economic loss incurred due to the fatal road accidents in Chandigarh for the first time. Earlier, the traffic police calculated only the losses of vehicles, total number of road crashes and deaths. In 2019, 305 accidents were reported, 100 were fatal in which 104 persons were died, 205 were non-fatal accidents, in which 275 people received injured.
DIG (Traffic, Security) Shashank Anand said, “We adopted the standards of the World Bank, which did a study for the entire world in 2018. We also take the help of leading road safety experts. For calculating the loss, we studied the profile of the victims who died in the road crashes. The specific socio-economic loss also contains the component of loss of vehicular machinery, among others.”
As per the traffic police study, nine people died in road accidents every month and five deaths per km were reported on an average. It said that the GMCH-32 roundabout to Hallomajra light point is the most critical road stretch. The study further said, “August, October and December are more critical in terms of road accidents and fatal casualties.
The most fatalties were observed between 6 pm to 9 pm, 6 am to 9 am, 9 am to 12 noon and 3 pm to 6 pm and they are the most dangerous time intervals in Chandigarh.”
Road Safety expert working with the road safety NGO ArriveSafe, Harman Sidhu said, “The international organisation has fixed the socio-economic loss according to countries. It is good to calculate the loss in every road crash in a professional manner. Indeed, every human life is priceless. The motive behind such calculation is to spread awareness among public.”
Traffic police have identified 14 black spots in the view of road crashes, out of which five are on the National Highway – Madhya Marg and Dakshin Marg. On the front of suspension of driving licenses, 7491 driving licenses were recommended for the suspension. The annual report said that 2,69,854 traffic challans and 81,000 Traffic Violation Information Slip (TVIS) notices were issued in 2019, out of which 52,053 were issued through CCTV cameras.