NEW DELHI: Outer Ring Road and Ring Road are the highest crash prone stretches in the national capital with recording 560 incidents of crashes, together in 2021, according to a report published by Delhi Traffic Police (DTP) on Friday.
Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora on Friday launched the Delhi Road Crash Report, 2021. This is the first time that the DTP has replaced the word ‘accident’ with ‘crash’ in this annual report, formerly titled as ‘Road Accidents in Delhi’, as per the report.
The change is on the basis that ‘crashes’ are events that can be prevented, and are open to rational analysis and remedial action, while ‘accidents’ suggest that they are inevitable, it said. According to the report, the top 10 crash-prone roads recorded in 2021 were Outer Ring Road (280), Ring Road (280), Rohtak Road (136), GTK Road (134), Najafgarh Road (107), Wazirabad Road (101), NH-8 (85), Mathura Road (80) Grand Trunk Road (78) and Mehrauli Badarpur Road (72).
Meanwhile, in terms of total road crashes in 2021, West District (648) was the highest crash prone district of all Delhi districts followed by North-West (580), South East (533) and Outer District (488).The report highlighted “disobeying traffic rules” and “over-speeding” as two top reasons behind road crashes (4,720) in the city which killed 1,239 people and injured 4,273 in 2021.
According to the report, the crash incidents were recorded 13% higher in 2021 than the preceding year. The deaths climbed by 3.6% in the same duration, it added. “A large proportion of the road crash victims in low-income and middle-income countries are vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists. They benefit least from policies designed for motorized travel, but bear a disproportionate share of the disadvantages of motorisation in terms of injury, pollution and the separation of communities,” the report highlighted.
“Road traffic injuries place a heavy burden, not only on global and national economies but also on household finances. Many families are driven deeply into poverty by the loss of breadwinners and the added burden of taking care of those injured. As per the World Bank, road crashes cost the Indian economy 3 to 5% of GDP each year,” it added.
The report also found that males accounted for 92 percent of the road crash death victims. Besides, 8 pm to 2 am was found the most vulnerable time for crashes as the duration reported 42% of overall accidents occurred in the year.