In a bid to tackle problems regarding road safety and discourage habitual offenders, the Delhi Traffic Police has written to the Secretary of the Delhi Transport Department to cancel the driving licences of owners of vehicles, which have had three violations relating to dangerous driving and drink and driving or more than five relating to normal challans.
This comes in the light of a recently released Delhi road crash report of 2023, which revealed that a pedestrian or a motorist travelling on the roads of the National Capital are among the most prone to road fatalities as data reveals that they constitute 43 and 38 per cent of such casualties respectively.
“In 2023, 622 pedestrians died in 618 fatal crashes caused by all types of vehicles as compared to 629 pedestrian deaths in 2022. The maximum pedestrian casualties were caused due to car, jeep and taxis which have increased to 76 this year compared to 69 in 2022,” the report read.
It also revealed that two-wheeler riders have emerged as second most fatal crash-prone victims. “The above figure shows 538 fatal crashes of two-wheelers in 2023 as compared to 539 in 2022. These two-wheelers were the worst hit by Heavy Vehicles (HTVs) (89) followed by Car/Jeep/Taxis (66) in 2023,” it stated.
According to the report, prepared by the traffic police and released by Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora, the number of deaths in road crashes has however decreased from 1,264 in 2022 to 1257 in 2023 despite the increase in the number of vehicle registrations.
Moreover, the number of drivers booked under traffic violation has increased from 4,38,052 in 2022 to 6,39,097 in the Year 2023.
Ajay Chaudhary, Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said, “The efforts of the Delhi Traffic Police have led to a total reduction in road crash deaths in Delhi by 20 per cent over the last decade. Continuing our efforts to save lives, we have now increased focus on more pedestrian centric traffic management.”
In the report, traffic Police have also identified 10 black spots which includes ISBT Kashmere Gate, Mukarba Chowk, Libaspur bus stand, Kashmere Gate Chowk, Burari Chowk, Britannia Chowk, Bhalswa Chowk, Wazirpur Depot, Mori Gate and Gandhi Vihar bus stand.
Further, the report mentioned the 10 roads that recorded ten or more deaths last year are NH-8, Kanjhawala Road, NH-24, Patel Road and Pankha Road among others.
The traffic department added that keeping the festival and increasing air quality index in mind 4,000 personnels will be deployed on the roads of Delhi which includes 400 home guards. Moreover, 72 cranes will be deployed to remove or tow away vehicles and 150 motorcycles to regulate the flow of traffic will also be present in the coming months.
