Gurugram's roads see four accidents, a death each day

Gurugram: At a time when the Haryana government is observing Road Safety week, the Millennium City witnessed four back-to-back fatal accidents, resulting in ten deaths. The mishaps were just another illustration of the perils faced by commuters and pedestrians on the roads of Gurugram.

According to official data, four accidents have occurred on a daily basis so far in 2018, at least one of which are fatal.

In March itself, over 96 were reported, in which 34 people died and 110 sustained serious injuries.

Most of the accidents and casualties are reported from areas of Pachgaon Chowk, IMT Chowk, Bilaspur and Manesar market area, with pedestrians and two-wheeler riders being the most frequent victims.

For last five years, over a thousand road mishaps have led to more than 400 casualties.

In 2014, 1,180 accidents were reported, which claimed 430 lives. In 2015, the cases reduced slightly to 1,140, but the death toll was higher at 435; while in 2016, there were 1,201 accidents and 420 deaths reported.

This year, so far, 481 people have lost their lives on Gurugram's roads.

The high number of overloaded vehicles, over-speeding, barely visible road signages, poor road designs and massive number of drivers taking wrong turns are some of the major reasons mentioned by traffic officials for the increase in accidents. The worst affected area is the Delhi -Jaipur Highway, which accounts for the most accidents.

"The Delhi-Jaipur Highway, for long, has been an unsafe stretch. There is blatant violation of traffic rules by heavy vehicles that overspeed and drive rashly after crossing the Manesar stretch. Though there are various flaws, authorities must try to rein in drivers of heavy commercial vehicles which are proving to be a major danger because of their reckless driving," said Rajeev Jain, a city resident who uses the route daily to commute to Bawal.

Under the revised Motor Vehicles Act passed last year by the Haryana Assembly, the Gurugram Traffic Police has increased the rate of fines for traffic violators.

The old rates of fines were Rs 500 and Rs 100 have now been revised to Rs 1,000 for the first time offence and Rs 2,000 for the second offence.

A major challenge for Gurugram police, however, is lack of proper devices to regulate the traffic.

A reply to a recent RTI query revealed that all six speed governor devices with the Gurugram Police are defunct.