National Crime Records Bureau reported that more than 55 per cent road accidents occurred due to over speeding. In 2019, there were 4,37,396 road accidents that caused over 151 Lakh deaths in India.
Jalandhar: A majority of road accidents, about 55 per cent , were caused by over speeding. The age group of 18-35 is most prone to road accidents, followed by people falling in the 35-45 years age group.
Deputy Director of State Transport Authority, Mr Parneet Singh said, “Our effort is to create awareness. Of course, the fear of law must be there. We need to make the departments concerned work. But, my question is why would we want to wait to lose a loved one to be careful about road safety?”
Amongst the states, Uttar Pradesh leads with 23,285 cases, followed by Maharashtra at 14,608 cases and Karnataka at 10,951 cases. Nagaland reported the lowest cases at 22 amongst all the states in 2019. Lakshadweep reported zero cases in 2019 amongst the Union Territories.
Advisor of Road Safety for Punjab, Mr Navdeep Ahija said, “ ‘Safe Punjab Programme’ is an initiative by Punjab Government for safer roads. One of the biggest initiative by the government is to identify the black spots, which are the districts most prone to accidents and appointment of a specialist who would work closely with the Deputy Commissioner in collecting data, policy implementation and many other aspects.”
There are over 300 NGOs working to create awareness for road safety in India. Ms InderpalKaur, who started Ajeet Singh for Safer Roads(ASSR) NGO after losing her son to a fatal road accident said, “Our effort is to bring about a change. We do not want other mothers to lose their sons like I did.”
Even though the total number of accidents have briefly gone down in 2019, the total number of deaths have only increased. This means that accidents are becoming more severe in nature. States and NGOs keep working to create awareness for road safety.
