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Number of road accidents in Kolkata drops in 2019

Kolkata: Kolkata Traffic Police has claimed that the overall number of fatal and non-fatal accidents have gone down in 2019, compared to the same last year. However, the number of fatal accidents has increased where buses and auto-rickshaws were involved.

On Thursday, Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Pandey Santosh and Deputy Commissioner, Traffic, Rupesh Kumar informed that Kolkata Traffic Police has came out with an analysis where the number of fatal accidents where bikes were involved has drastically decreased.

In 2018, bike accidents had claimed the life of 37 persons, whereas only 22 people have died in similar accidents in 2019. Kumar and Santosh claimed that the planning of Kolkata Police proved successful in reducing the accident graph.

However, they have also admitted that the number of fatal accidents where buses and auto-rickshaws were involved has increased, which is alarming. In 2018, 85 people were killed in accidents where buses were involved. The number has gone up to 97 in 2019. Meanwhile, in case of accidents where auto-rickshaws were involved, the number has gone up to 10 in 2019 from 7 last year. "We are mulling how to curb road accidents where buses and autos are involved. At present, we have started campaigning to urge passengers not to board and deboard running buses," said Santosh.

He further informed that compared to 2018, police have become stricter and have taken stringent steps against offenders. In 2018, driving licences of 2,533 persons were suspended, a number which has gone up to 5,729 in 2019. Approximately 9.08 lakh people were prosecuted in 2018 for riding two-wheelers without helmet and triple-carrying. This number has gone up to 9.42 lakh in 2019. In 2018, more than 5,000 persons were prosecuted for drunken driving, whereas more than 8,000 people have been prosecuted for the same in 2019. Kumar and Santosh also stated that in a bid to curb road accidents, several measures like installation of speed restriction signage has been utilised in strategic locations. Several black spots have also been identified, which have been found to be accident-prone zones.

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