‘Scary... shocking...’: CM vows action on accidents

Panaji: Describing Goa's road accident statistics as “scary” and “shocking”, CM Pramod Sawant said on Friday that the state would get cracking on reducing the number of traffic accidents from the first week of December. Speaking at the open forum on road safety organised by the government, he said that a report of public suggestions would be compiled within 15 days, and their implementation will begin in December.
Sawant said that the number of fatal accidents on Goan roads was worrisome, as also the fact that a large percentage of them are self-accidents. He said that the traffic police, transport department and public works department will continue to accept suggestions to improve road safety over the next few days from citizens who were unable to attend the open forum.
“The three departments will work on measures to be implemented in the short term and in the long term,” he said. “It is scary to look at the number of fatalities, and the number of those dying in self-accidents is shocking. In 2017, 132 died in self-accidents, in 2018, it was 112, in 2019, it was 133, in 2020, it was 111, in 2022, the figure was 135. We cannot reduce accidents 100%, but with traffic management measures, we can reduce the number of accidents, and we are ready to implement measures required for this.”
Sawant said that the traffic management module was introduced in schools with the intention of creating more responsible road users in the future.
The CM also said that drunken driving has reduced by 60-70% since police cracked down on violators.
Sawant said that the state government would hold open fora on various other issues plaguing Goa and bring necessary changes based on public suggestions. “This will ensure that NGOs are not compelled to move courts to bring issues to our notice,” he said.
DGP Jaspal Singh said that a study of the data of accidents in Goa shows that 56% of the accidents had taken place due to a mistake on the part of the driver or rider. “Traffic management is a multi-disciplinary function involving road infrastructure, transport, enforcement and most importantly the road user (driver, rider),” he said. “We have been analysing data and it reveals that 56% of the accidents take place due to error of the driver or rider. It shows that citizens have to play an important