BENGALURU: Like Karnataka, Bengaluru also ranks third in the number of accidents reported in cities which have a population in excess of 50 lakh.According to the ‘Accidents in India - 2016’ report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, a total of 5,323 accidents were reported in Bengaluru in 2016. The city, data shows, also saw 835 fatalities during the period or at the rate of five deaths every two days. The city with the highest number of accidents was Chennai, which saw 7,486 accidents, followed by Delhi, which had 7,375 accidents. Bengaluru was closely followed by Indore, which recorded 5,143 accidents during the year.
Severity of accidents - which measures the number of deaths per 100 accidents - was lower in Bengaluru when compared to the top two cities. As a result, Bengaluru was ranked fourth in terms of fatal accidents. Severity for Bengaluru was 15.7 (with a total of 835 deaths), against 21.6 for Delhi and 15.8 for Chennai. The highest severity of accidents was reported in Ludhiana with 69.9 deaths per 100 accidents, followed by Amritsar with 67.1.
The data also showed that the number of accidents in major cities of the country fell from 22.1 per cent of all accidents in 2015 to 18.7 per cent in 2016.Traffic expert M N Sreehari told Express said that lack of adequate safety measures has been one of the major causes for such large number of accidents to occur. “There are close to 70 road safety parameters. However, only major safety features are followed, while minor ones are ignored due to paucity of funds or other reasons,” he said. On severity of accidents he said that more good roads had a bearing on the number of accidents.