Fatal road mishaps

ACCIDENTS continue to claim hundreds of lives every day on India’s roads — the most unsafe in the world. In Haryana, 13 persons were killed daily, on an average, in mishaps last year. The nationwide scenario remains grim despite the Centre’s focus on traffic black spots. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha in December last year, the Centre had stated that 47,984 people were killed in accidents only on national highways, including expressways, during 2020, while the corresponding death toll in 2019 was 53,872. The drop in fatalities was largely attributed to the restricted movement of vehicles amid the Covid-induced lockdown and other curbs in the first year of the pandemic. As per NCRB data, 1.33 lakh people died in accidents across all kinds of roads in 2020, even as the all-India data for 2021 is being compiled.

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The major causes of mishaps on national highways are speeding; drunken driving; driving on the wrong side; vehicle design and condition; road engineering; and the use of mobile phones. Speeding accounted for over 60 per cent of the fatalities in 2020. There is no denying that technology has to be used in a big way to streamline traffic on highways and penalise the offenders. Real-time challans can make rash drivers see reason before it’s too late for them as well as other motorists. The slogan ‘lane driving is sane driving’ is commonly spotted on the signage along highways, but how many drivers take it seriously? Dangerous/careless driving or overtaking caused over 24 per cent of the accidents in 2020, snuffing out more than 35,000 lives.

The total length of national and state highways is just 5-10 per cent of the entire road network, but their share of deaths is disproportionately high. It’s a pity that many travellers succumb to injuries due to lack of timely medical attention. The Central and state governments need to go the extra mile to ensure effective, round-the-clock patrolling of highways. It’s time to put the brakes on the recklessness that makes every road journey perilous.