Delhi Police to study why more road accidents occur during int'l event

The Delhi Police has undertaken a study to ascertain why there are more road accidents in the national capital during important global events like the recent Solar Alliance Summit, an official said.

The police was prompted to take up the study after over 20 accidents were reported between March 10 and 12 when a large number of personnel were drawn from different traffic zones and deployed in Lutyens's Delhi and south Delhi to ensure hassle-free movement of dignitaries for the March 11 International Solar Alliance Summit.

The national capital had hosted dignitaries from 23 nations for the summit co-hosted by India and France at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

"The Delhi Traffic Police has undertaken a study to ascertain the cause of this phenomenon," the officer said.

The traffic police has a strength of over 5,500 personnel.

During the three days, March 10 to 12, personnel were drawn from other traffic ranges apart from the central and south ranges and deployed for the VVIP movement, he said.

Personnel had "hectic shifts" at that time and it is being studied whether the shortage of staff in other areas of Delhi and the packed schedule were responsible for the high number of accidents, the officer said.

"We usually see a spike in the number of accidents when there are conferences," he said.

"The study will help us understand whether deployment of force for such events in Lutyens' Delhi impacts safety of motorists and pedestrians in other areas," the officer said.

On the intervening night of March 10 and 11, two college students were killed and three others injured after a woman crashed here car into a divider in northwest Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar.

On March 11, three persons died in two separate road accidents in Dwarka and two others died after their vehicle was hit by a car in Dhul Siras area of Dwarka.

In the another incident reported from Jaffarpur Kalan area of Dwarka, a DTC bus conductor travelling on a motorcycle died after being hit by a car.

In 2016, 1,548 fatal accidents were reported in which 1,591 people lost their lives. In 2017, the number of such accidents was 1,474 and 1,505 people were killed, according to the Delhi Traffic Police statistics.

Till March 15 this year, 239 accidents were reported in which 248 persons were killed.