Road safety project delivers, fatalities dip 16% in five months in Punjab

Rajmeet Singh

Chandigarh, July 21

The state government’s flagship road safety project Sadak Surakhya Force (SSF), launched in January this year, has started yielding results.

The number of fatalities in road accidents in the state came down by around 16 per cent between February 2024 and June 2024, compared to the corresponding period last year. In January this year, CM Bhagwant Mann had flagged off the SSF fleet of 144 vehicles.

Navdeep Asija, Traffic Adviser to the Punjab Government, said the fatalities had come down due to timely evacuation of accident victims. Hoshiarpur district has reported the highest dip in fatalities (28), followed by Khanna (27), Fatehgarh Sahib (27) and Kapurthala (22).

According to Asija, against 934 fatalities reported between February-June 2023, the number came down to 787 during the corresponding period this year. Covering 4,000 km of state and national highways, high tech vehicles have been stationed at every 30 km for prompt rescue of accident victims to designated hospitals.

According to the available data, 17-18 persons lose their lives in road accidents in Punjab every day, which means over 500 deaths per month and around 6,000 deaths every year.