Geneva body calls for efforts to bring down road fatalities

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 24

The International Road Federation (IRF), a Geneva-based not-for-profit organisation promoting the cause of safe roads and smart mobility worldwide, has shared its concern over the growing incidents of fatal road accidents in the country. The federation has urged the Chief Ministers of Punjab and Haryana to join hands with the IRF to reduce deaths during accidents.

Both states account for one of the highest road deaths in the country. Haryana ranks 14th and Punjab 18th in the number of fatal road accidents among the states in the country. Uttar Pradesh tops the ranking as per the road accidents report for the year 2018 released by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).

“With 5,118 persons killed in 11,238 road accidents during 2018, Haryana ranks 14th and with 4,740 deaths in 6,428 road accidents, Punjab ranks 18th among various states in terms of accident fatalities. About 328 persons died in road accidents in Ludhiana alone during 2018,” said KK Kapila, president, emeritus, International Road federation (IRF).

During 2018 a total of 1.51 lakh people died in road accidents and 4,69 lakh got injured as reported by the states and Union territories in the country, Kapila said.

As revealed by the report, major reasons behind fatal road accidents were hit and run cases, wrong-side driving, collisions with parked vehicles, bad road conditions, speeding and not wearing helmets.

As the report further claims, speeding was one of the primary reasons for fatalities due to road accidents with 64.4 per cent share. According to latest data released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, among million-plus cities in India, roads were deadliest in Ludhiana and Amritsar.