Guj saw 44% dip in road accidents in 10 yrs despite rise in vehicle numbers

Road accidents in Gujarat decreased by 44 per cent in the last 10 years despite a rise in the number of vehicles, a state minister said on Wednesday.

Gujarat Minister of State for Transport Harsh Sanghavi, who chaired a meeting of the Gujarat Road Safety Authority in Gandhinagar during the day, attributed this drop in the number of accidents to the efforts taken by the Gujarat Road Safety Authority in reducing the time taken for transporting the victims from the accident sites to nearby hospitals.

During the meeting, Sanghavi informed the stakeholders that though the number of vehicles have increased since 2012, Gujarat has reported a decrease of 44 per cent in road accidents between 2012 and 2022, an official release said. The state government as well as the Gujarat Road Safety Authority made this possible with the help of 5E strategy - engineering, enforcement, emergency, education and awareness and effective coordination, he was quoted as saying. On the occasion, Sanghavi announced that lessons on various aspects related to road safety will be introduced in the curriculum of standard 6 to 12.

He said the state government will also use BISAG satellite communication service to create awareness among school students about road safety. The minister said the Authority had worked with other stakeholders, such as the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and state Road and Building Department to remove 'black spots' from those roads where accidents were taking place frequently. Sanghavi said of all road accidents that took place in 2022, collisions from behind or sideways and hit and run cases were reasons in 56 per cent accidents. Seventy-three per cent of those who died in road accidents were in the age group of 18 to 45 years, while 67 per cent of the deceased were motorcycle-riders, cyclists and pedestrians.

He instructed the officials to develop Sarkhej-Gandhinagar, Bharuch-Surat and Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway as 'model roads' by taking all necessary steps regarding road safety, the release said.