ROURKELA: Amid the high road fatalities in Sundargarh and Keonjhar, two key mining districts, Odisha Police has made good use of data analytics and paired it with response mechanism to bring down the numbers. A project piloted in the most accident-prone areas has helped curb fatalities as well as injuries.
As part of the initiative, Koida, K Balang, Lahunipada, Chandiposh, Brahmani Tarang and RN Pali police stations under Rourkela police district and Birmitrapur, Rajgangpur, Bargaon, Sadar and Hemgir police stations under Sundargarh police district have been included in the pilot initiative which was conducted in July.
Six police stations under Keonjhar too are part of it. Police sources informed that accident data for the one month period showed encouraging changes after implementation of the pilot project. According to statistics, Rourkela which had reported 17 fatalities in July 2024 marked a drop to 12 this year.
In Sundargarh, 18 deaths were reported in July 2024 which came down to nine in July 2025. In Keonjhar, the 21 fatalities in July last year fell to eight this time. To understand the accident patterns, the police made use of Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD) web application and analysed accident days, exact windows, geographic location as well as associated factors to break down what led to the high number of fatalities.
Basing on the data, enforcement and highway patrolling was planned. The DIG said three years accident data from the iRAD application was analysed to ascertain the patter n of accidents, timings and particular days when most accidents were occurred. He said among other things with spot visits certain accident hotspots were earmarked and among other things it was found that over speeding at sharp turns or lateral entry from arterial roads are also reasons for accidents.
DIG (western range) Brijesh Kumar Rai said detailed analysis of data led the police to decipher that village weekly market days saw a sharp rise in road accidents compared to normal days due to rush of pedestrians, small or large vehicles, violation of traffic norms and risky driving in inebriated. During the course of the weekly markets, drunken driving usually numbers were also high. Basing on the accident data, time window and vulnerable spots, police brought about fresh plans for enforcement, deployment as well as watch of vulnerable spots.
“Patrol vehicles are being deployed at the hotspots and comprehensive enforcements are getting done. Patrolling on highways has been intensified on specified timings with extra focus on preventing erratic parking which often end up causing major mishaps,” Rai said. He said the NIT-R has been entrusted to conduct detailed survey of national and state highways to find out reasons for accidents, engineering faults and black spots. Based on the survey report, the most accident -prone points would be equipped with surveillance cameras, speed radars and engineering faults or black spots would be corrected.