The latest figures released by the National Crime Records Bureau has ranked Punjab industrial town ludhiana as the ‘third biggest killer’ on roads in India with road accidents witnessing an increase by 71.5 percent in 2014 as compared to 2013.
The number of accidents in ludhiana has gone up to 475 in 2014 from 277 in 2013 — an increase of 71.5 per cent, whereas the percentage increase in the State is just 1.1 per cent. These accidents reported 318 deaths, more than the number of accidents in 2013, besides 271 injuries.
ludhiana has become the third ‘most dangerous cities’ in India after Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh witnessing an increase in road accidents from 338 in 2013 to 1,101 in 2014 — an increase of 226 per cent, and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh from 2,427 accidents in 2013 to 4,807 in 2014 — an increase of 98.1 percent.
Punjab’s holy town, Amritsar, has also witnessed a substantial increase in number of accidents from 135 in 2013 to 165 in 2014 — 22.2 percent.
Punjab State Road Safety Council vice-chairman Kamaljit Soi blamed it on the non-existence of correct traffic infrastructure, such as lane markings, non-existent signboards, poor road engineering and pedestrian crossings and foot-over-bridges, along with rapidly increasing traffic violations, poor traffic management, arbitrary closing of cuts, putting more traffic pressure on traffic signals for the increasing number of accidents.
Soi said: “The number of fatalities and serious injuries has shown a very steep increase in the last years as clear from statistics released by the NCRB. An increase of 71.5 percent is the reason for big concern and is worrisome.”
“The statistics are threatening when the police and transport department claims to have taken enough measures to reduce number of road crashes,” said Soi, adding that their claims are hollow, they are using the quacks to frame their traffic campaigns, the board showing safe distance of one-meter in two vehicles is an glaring example of mismanagement.
Soi, who is also an international road safety expert, suggested that there should be systematic, technical and meticulous approach to reduce road accidents. “The officials, both traffic and transport, and elected representatives just do campaigns for media but no concrete action is taken so far. Two-wheeler riders are accounting for over 40 percent of road deaths, followed by pedestrians at 20 percent. There are no facilities such as footpaths, crossings or signals for pedestrians. Two-wheeler riders are hardly using helmets,” he said.
He added that authorities have not paid attention to improve public transport in the past 10-15 years. “This has resulted in a major jump in the number of private vehicles on roads of ludhiana. Mobility of people rather than on mobility of vehicles has to be the focus of all traffic management activities,” he said.
Soi said that the traffic police should not do selective traffic enforcement rather than police should enforce those offences those leads to serious injuries and deaths. “Fear of being caught should be instilled in ludhiana,” he added.