CHENNAI: Police on Friday said the state has recorded the lowest number of fatalities in road accidents in the last decade with a 15% drop in the first three months of 2025 when compared to the same period last year.
A release said that in the first three months of 2025, police recorded 4,136 fatalities against 4,864 reported in the same period last year. This was owing to key measures such as 24x7 highway patrol for faster emergency response, engineering improvements such as safer U-turns, signage and stricter enforcement.
Strict enforcement had resulted in 38.4 lakh traffic violations being booked which included 62,523 for speeding, 83,783 for signal jumping, 1.13 lakh for mobile phone use while driving, 59,084 for drink-driving, 16.56 lakh for not wearing helmet and 1.48 lakh for not wearing seat belt. Police had also recommended suspension of 1.1 lakh licences out of which 27,000 were effected.
The release said 2,551 accident victims had been rescued within the golden hour and 9,156 awareness programmes had reached 5.71 lakh people. Road safety programmes were conducted in schools, colleges, bus stands and other public venues which included on-site education at high-risk areas, pamphlet distribution and targeted campaigns for commercial drivers.