While the Supreme Court is asking the State Government to curb road accidents and deaths on road, however, continuously it is on the rise, causing concern among the people and authorities.
Districts like Bhubaneswar, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Jajpur, Baleswar, Ganjam and Puri continue to be the top accident prone districts. And, with motor vehicle accidents on the rise, more fatalities are caused on the highways in the State.
Similarly, in death due to motor accidents, districts like Keonjhar, Ganjam, Jajpur, Sundargarh, Baleswar and Sambalpur report the most.
latest report on motor vehicle accidents reveal that in 2017 in 10,855 accidents, 4,790 people were killed. During 2016, accidents numbering 10,532 occurred while deaths reported were 4,463. In 2015, there were 10, 542 accidents and fatalities were 4,303.
Experts feel that a combination of factors such as human error, lack of enforcement measures, road defects, manufacturing defects in vehicles and worsening traffic congestions are raising the level of human vulnerability to accidents.
Number of accidents is high on the National Highways as for last few years as NHs are ill-maintained and people’s complaints go unheeded.
During 2017, highest 600 accidents were reported in Bhubaneswar Urban Police District and highest 312 deaths due to motor vehicle accidents occurred in Keonjhar. Similarly, second highest accidents of 592 were reported in Keonjhar, while 274 deaths occurred in Ganjam.
During 2015, Ganjam topped the list of motor vehicle accidental deaths of 242 and in 2016, it reported 275 deaths.
Persons receiving grievous injury were 5,911 during 2017 and highest cases of 333 were reported in district of Puri and second highest 332 in Baleswar.
Cases of minor injury during 2017 were 5,287 and Koraput recoded 448 highest cases and Sambalpur reported second highest 361 cases. Keonjhar recorded 339 minor injury cases due to motor vehicle accidents.
So these districts are continuing as most accident prone zones and an analysis of statistics on road accidents reveals that at least 69 per cent accidents occur in districts of Ganjam, Khurda, Cuttack, Jajpur, Baleswar, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Subarnapur, Balangir, Gajapati, Kalahandi and Koraput.
The State Government is repeatedly asking the district authorities to chart out accident curbing plan and implement the same. However, year after year, the situation continues to be grim and numbers of accidents along with deaths are on the rise.