CHENNAI: Strange as it may seem, the lockdown restrictions in 2021 may have caused an increase in the number of road accident fatalities. Last year, Tamil Nadu saw a 41.7% increase in deaths due to mishaps compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
Until 2020, the number of deaths had been steadily declining. Provisional data from the State transport department, accessed by TNIE, show 14,912 people died in accidents in 2021, compared to 10,525 in 2019, and just 8,060 in 2020.
The dip in 2020 was not surprising, due to the stringent lockdown restrictions. But the sudden rise in 2021 has taken officials by surprise as certain lockdown restrictions were still in place. This could be because more people used private vehicles due to the restrictions on public transport, say officials of the transport department. “Many people made long-distance trips in their vehicles.
This could either be to avoid contact with others or due to non-availability of public transport. The spike in accidents could be because many of them lacked knowledge of the road conditions and were inexperienced drivers,” said a transport official. Since the pandemic, more people are using motorcycles to ride hundreds of kilometres between cities such as Chennai, Tiruchy, Bengaluru, and Salem.
Break-up of deaths shows correlation with public transport
The month-wise break-up of road accident deaths shows a correlation with the restrictions on public transport. On an average, 1,453 people lost their lives in the first four months of 2021, when public transport systems were operated only partially. The road accident fatalities dipped to 738 in May, when the State was under a near-total lockdown due to the second wave of the Covid-19outbreak. The number of fatalities started increasing from June, and reached 1,326 in August.
However, it declined to 1,291 in September. Train services were resumed from September 7 at the request of the State government. Buses too were operated in full swing from that period. In the subsequent months, the number of road accident deaths dropped, reaching 1,156 in December. A transport official says they are taking the rise in road accident deaths seriously, especially because the State had made good progress in reducing the number of accident fatalities from 17,218 in 2016 to10,525 in 2019. "All Collectors and Superintendents of Police have been instructed to repair black spots on