KOCHI: The latest statistics on road accidents and fatalities sought by the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety has revealed that the state has achieved the target of 10 per cent reduction in road accidents and fatalities from November 2019 to March 2020.
From levying heavy fines, cancellation of driving licenses, and booking violators for helmetless pillion riders have resulted in the reduction of road accidents and fatalities in the state roads.
If the number of road accidents reported during the five months period from November to March in 2019 stood at 18,010, it has come down to 17,605 in 2020. Also, the fatalities reported has dipped to 1,738 from 2,050 during the same period.
"Strict enforcement of road safety laws and hike in penalty imposed by the Motor Vehicle's Department under the Safe Kerala Project might have resulted in the dip in the number of road accidents and fatalities. From 2018-2019 period, there was only a 3 per cent decrease in accidents and 4.5 per cent decrease in fatalities.
Hence, we couldn't achieve the annual target of 10 percent reduction in accidents and fatalities set by the SC Committee on road safety. However, this year, we have been able to surpass the 10 per cent target," said Elangovan T, executive director, Kerala Road Safety Authority.
"Road accidents reduced by 433 in the first three months of 2020 as compared to the previous year. While 2019 reported 11,026 road accidents during the first quarter, same period in 2020 reported 10,593 mishaps.
There was also a 17 per cent reduction in fatalities reported during the first quarter of this year," added Elangovan.
Accidents during lockdown period
The Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety had sought details of road accidents and fatalities reported during the lockdown period. The report divulged a 79 per cent reduction in road crashes and fatalities this year when compared with the corresponding year in 2019. There was a reduction of 6,111 accidents, 733 lives were saved and 7023 injuries were avoided.
However, a question arises on how there have been accidents reported during the lockdown.
"Although there was no public transport, there was a spurt in the number of emergency vehicles and those transporting essential commodities. Since most of the police personnel had to focus on pandemic-related activities, enforcement activities have been reduced. This has resulted in violating road rules such as speeding causing accidents," said the official.
Steps to rectify black spots
As part of the annual calendar for Accident Black Spot Management which is chalked out by the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (Natpac), the road safety authority along with the police, Motor Vehicles, Public Works department (PWD) plans to rectify black spots this year.
As per the protocol by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways ( MoRTH), an accident black spot is identified when five accidents or 10 fatalities have been reported within an area of 500 m in lengths during the last three years.
"We have identified 238 accident black spots in the state which include 159 on national highways, 51 on state highways and the rest on other roads. Although we had planned to start rectification by March, it had to be postponed. However, we will resume the same from September, " said the road safety official.