Pedestrians worst victims of road mishaps in Delhi

Pedestrians in Delhi are the worst victims of road mishaps, maximum number of which takes place on Ring Road, a study by the Delhi Traffic police revealed today.

More than 50 per cent of victims in traffic fatalities in the national capital are pedestrians while ten per cent of the total fatal accidents in Delhi takes place on the Ring Road, the study said.

From 2006 to 2009, when the study took place, 793 fatal accidents and 1,818 non fatal mishaps occurred on Ring road which is 10 per cent and 7 per cent out of the total accidents respectively.
 

"52 per cent of traffic fatalities involve pedestrians. Peak timing for fatal accidents in the city was noted between 8 am in the morning to 12 noon," Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Anil Shukla said during a workshop on 'Road Accidents in Delhi: Analysis and Solutions'.

Speaking on the occasion, Special Commissioner (Traffic) Taj Hassan said the main reason for the fatalities are inadequate infrastructure, limited traffic staff and constant boost in the number of vehicles in the capital.

The study also revealed that out of the total mishaps in four years, 404 accidents involved private cars whereas in 353 such cases, buses were involved.

"We have no control over the increasing number of vehicles. What can help is a better public transport system, effective pedestrian rights, better road engineering and developed urban transport system," Hassan said.

Director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences M C Mishra who was also present at the workshop said, "One major cause of such deaths is the lack of immediate services. In rural areas victims of such fatal accidents are not able to receive first aid in time due to lack of ambulance services."

"Even Delhi is dependent on PCR vans to take accident victims to hospitals in most of the cases. Today there is a need of an efficient ambulance service," he said.

The study further revealed that 45.7 per cent of such accidents take place because of the driver's fault. Apart from this the other reasons that have been noticed are mechanical issues, victim's carelessness, weather conditions and road engineering faults while more than 15 per cent of the cases occurred due to over speeding.

Referring to the data of last five years, Shukla revealed that 10,023 fatal accidents have occurred during the period. 4000 were unknown vehicles, out of which 24 per cent were HTVs/goods vehicles.

Rajeev Lochan, Director, Road Safety for the Ministry for Road Transport and Highways who also attended the workshop, said that keeping all the issues in mind and to resolve it, a National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board is being set up.

He said that the department is waiting for further approvals and its execution can be expected in a period of six months.

"The government is working on it, it is one of our major concerns and priority. Steps are being taken and the results will soon be out," he said.