PUNE: Road accident fatalities in April and May last year — the months when the Covid-induced nationwide lockdown was in effect — was down by 50% compared to the casualties in the corresponding months in 2019 in Pune city.
A total of 13 lives were lost in road accidents in April and May last year in the city. In 2019, as many as 26 deaths were reported in those two months.
The nationwide Covid-induced lockdown was in effect from March 25 to June 7 last year. A total of 31 people died in road accidents on the city roads from March 1 to June 7, 2020. The year before, there were 56 road accident fatalities in Pune city in the same period. Thus, the road accident fatalities in those four months of the Covid-hit year was 44.6% less compared to that in 2019.
A total of 143 road accident deaths were reported in Pune city in 2020 as against 206 such casualties in 2019, prompting the traffic police officers cite the nationwide lockdown between the last week of March and the first week of June last year as the prime reason for the decline in the numbers. The number of accidents involving fatalities was 135 last year as against 199 in 2019, the police said. Besides, the city roads witnessed 245 accidents in 2020, in which 296 people suffered grievous injuries.
Data provided by traffic police showed the first two months of 2020 accounted for 44 deaths (22 each) — the highest road fatalities in a month in 2020. A total of 31 road accident deaths were reported in four months from March to June. Another 68 deaths were reported in six months from July to December — the period of phased opening of the lockdown, when more vehicles started hitting the streets.
July (17), November (13) and December (19) recorded two-digit accident deaths last year. Most of these were reported from the Katraj-Dehu Road bypass and the busy Solapur highway stretch from the RWITC racecourse to the Manjari Budruk toll post.
Deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Rahul Shrirame said, “The number of fatalities reduced because of the lockdown as there were very few vehicles on the city roads in that period, resulting in fewer accidents. April, June, August and October registered lowest number of fatal accidents. A majority of casualties were of two-wheeler riders and pillion riders.”
He said, “In November and December, the number of accidents increased as more vehicles started plying. The movement of heavy vehicles also increased after the manufacturing companies started production. The accidents on Katraj-Dehu Road bypass and the Solapur highway contributed largely to the casualties in November and December.”
According to the traffic police, the stretch of Pune-Solapur highway — from the racecourse to Manjari Budruk — is in the jurisdiction of the Pune city police. Four deaths were recorded in the highway section in November 2020, and five in December. Similarly, the Katraj-Dehu road bypass section, from New Katraj Tunnel to Chandni Chowk, witnessed nine deaths in November and eight deaths in December, the police said.
“We undertook studies of accident black spots in the city earlier and we shall conduct the exercise again. We want to study the infrastructure and other issues of the roads to reduce the number of accidents in the city. We are planning to study all the fatal accidents by visiting the spots and take corrective measures to avert accidents on those particular spots again,” Shrirame said.