Nagaur : The Supreme Court Committee has written a letter to the Chief Secretary expressing deep concern over the increasing number of road accidents and the number of people losing their lives in them in the state year after year. In which instructions have been given to improve the black spots and regularize the meetings of the Road Safety Council and District Road Safety Committee to curb road accidents.
Accidents, deaths and injuries are on the rise
SCCORS Chairman Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre, Member Sanjay Mitra and Dr. Nishi Mittal suggested that the quarterly report on road accident data presented by the state government for the period from January 2023 to September 2023 is worrying. It has been observed in these that despite various measures taken by the state government to reduce road accidents/mortality, the number of accidents/deaths/injuries is higher in all the 3 quarters of 2023 as compared to January-September 2022, which is a matter of concern. In such a situation, the state should take some concrete steps to reduce accidents. Especially installation and maintenance of crash barriers, speed calming technology etc.
Death and injury in road accidents released by MORTH
On national highways
Year – Accidents – Deaths – Injuries
2020 – 5764 – 3320 – 5096
2021 – 6424 – 3829 – 6065
2022 – 7093 – 4156 – 6924
on the state highway
Year – Accidents – Deaths – Injuries
2020 – 3257 – 1802 – 2872
2021 – 3560 – 1945 – 3385
2022 – 4160 – 2224 – 4143
on other roads
Year – Accidents – Deaths – Injuries
2020 – 10,093 – 4128 – 8801
2021 – 10,967 – 4269 – 9894
2022 – 12,361 – 4724 – 11,226
81% of deaths are due to speeding
The committee said that after studying the data submitted by MORTH, it was found that out of the total deaths in road accidents in the state, 8998 (81.03 percent) people died due to speeding. Whereas 1455 (13.10 percent) people died due to other reasons. This data shows that traffic rule violations have not been effectively prevented and the enforcement of traffic laws in the state has not been well targeted in the past years. Therefore, the committee directs the state government to prepare an enforcement strategy based on road accident data, particularly the causes of deaths in road accidents, to achieve the desired results and submit a report to the committee.
The statistics of deaths in accidents are frightening
The committee said that the statistics of deaths and injuries in accidents due to various traffic violations in the year 2022 are showing a scary situation. Therefore, it is reiterated again that the state should ensure engineering measures and enforcement of traffic laws more strictly and firmly. Also, preventive measures should be taken to discourage traffic violations. Especially driving at high speed and driving without helmet / seat belt should be prohibited.
DRSC meetings are not being held
The Supreme Court Committee stated that the black spots marked should be rectified. It has been observed that some districts of the state have not held any meeting in the year 2023. Therefore, the state government is again directed to ensure that the relevant instructions on this issue are mandatorily complied with by every district of the state.
