Prayagraj: The death of 94 persons in 196 cases of road accidents in January and February this year has once again brought focus on rash and negligent driving that continues to claim more lives on the highway and streets of Sangam city. The Prayagraj district has topped the chart of road accident deaths in the Prayagraj range which includes Prayagraj, Fatehpur, Pratapgarh and Kaushambi districts.
Statistics revealed by the range police on Thursday showed that as many as 94 people lost their lives and 125 others sustained injuries in 196 cases of road accidents in Prayagraj in January and February this year, while the numbers for road accident deaths in Pratapgarh, Fatehpur and Kaushambi in the same period stood at 47, 60 and 32 respectively.
Data also revealed that 81, 77 and 49 cases of road accidents were recorded in Pratapgarh, Fatehpur and Kaushambi districts respectively in the first two months of this year. In Prayargaj district, 101 and 95 cases of road accidents were recorded in January and February months respectively wherein 49 and 45 people died in road accidents and 60 and 65 were left injured respectively.
According to the data, a total of 1178 cases of road mishap cases were reported in Prayagraj district last year (2020), whereas Pratapgarh, Fatehpur and Kaushambi districts recorded 430, 581 and 368 cases of road mishaps, respectively.
Data also claimed that while 531 people were killed in separate cases of accidents in Prayagraj last year, the number of persons who were killed in road mishaps in Pratapgarh, Fatehpur and Kaushambi stood at 286, 366 and 203 respectively. While 759 persons were injured in road accidents last year in Prayagraj, the number of injured persons in Pratapgarh, Fatehpur and Kaushambi stood at 271, 299 and 211 respectively.
The increasing graph of fatal road accidents in Prayagraj district has baffled the senior range police authorities who have asked traffic police officials to chalk out an effective strategy to minimize the cases of road accidents. An action plan to continuously monitor road safety measures as well as reviewing the status of accident-prone areas, also known as black spots, has also been pressed into service.
In Prayagraj district, data for last year revealed that there were 127 road accident cases reported in January, while 116, 104, 26,81,96,74,76, 91,117, 133 and 137 cases were recorded in February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December respectively.
In Prayagraj district alone, 52 people died in January last year while 47, 47, 7, 41, 45, 37, 39, 52,46, 61 and 57 people lost their lives in February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December months of 2020, respectively.
Similarly, as many as 759 people sustained injuries in separate cases of road mishaps in January (85), February (82), March (64), April (21), May(47), June (65), July (50), August (45), September (46), October ( 76), November (85) and December (93) of last year.
IG ( Prayagraj range) K P Singh said “Sincere measures are underway to implement road safety norms strictly for road users. Senior traffic police authorities have taken up a series of awareness and educational activities among heavy vehicle drivers to promote road safety measures to bring down cases of road mishaps and accidents.”