28 months, 628 precious lives snuffed out on Mohali roads

MOHALI:As many as 628 persons have lost their lives and 822 persons suffered injuries in accidents in the past 28 months on Mohali roads, which are certainly of top class if compared those with road infrastructure in any other district in Punjab.

Tribune News Service

Mohali, May 21

As many as 628 persons have lost their lives and 822 persons suffered injuries in accidents in the past 28 months on Mohali roads, which are certainly of top class if compared those with road infrastructure in any other district in Punjab.

If you go by official data, a total of 1,246 accidents have taken place in the past 28 months (from January 1, 2015 to April 30, 2017). These accidents have claimed 628 lives and left 822 persons injured, several of them serious.

The first four months of this year have already saw as many as 94 persons killed in 167 road accidents here. The number of injured persons in road accidents this year was 129.

In 2016, a total of 571 accidents have taken place in which 290 persons were killed and 329 were injured.

Year 2016 had witnessed around 15 per cent rise in number of accidents and nearly 20 per cent increase in deaths in road accidents, if compared with the figures of 2015.

In 2015, as many as 244 persons had lost their lives and 364 persons sustained injuries in a total of 508 road accidents.

In the district, which has at least 25 black spots, only 137 traffic policemen have been regulating the traffic.

“For effective regulation of traffic, there is a need for minimum 400 traffic policemen in the entire district that has busy highways, including Zirakpur-Delhi, Zirakpur-Patiala and Mohali-Kharar roads here, which are being used by thousands of people daily,” said Mohali Superintendent of Police (D) HS Atwal.

He said only Mohali town needed at least 200 traffic policemen. “So one can easily gauge that with just 137 traffic policemen, how much it would be difficult to manage the things,” said SP Atwal. Apart from that, the local police and the town too lack advanced gadgets for effective traffic regulation.

“The project of installation of CCTV cameras on traffic light points in Mohali is yet to take off. The local police have no gadgets, including speed guns, drunken driving meters and recovery vans, to check traffic offences,” said the police.

In the entire district, the police have just two recovery vans whereas the demand is of minimum eight vans, including two heavy ones.

Fact file

If you go by official data, a total of 1,246 accidents have taken place in the past 28 months (from January 1, 2015 to April 30, 2017).
The first four months of this year have already seen as many as 94 persons killed in 167 road accidents here. The number of injured persons in road accidents this year was 129.
Year 2016 had witnessed around 15 per cent rise in number of accidents and nearly 20 per cent increase in deaths in road accidents, if compared with the figures of 2015.
In the district, which has at least 25 black spots, only 137 traffic policemen have been regulating the traffic.