Road accidents: Pedestrians account for max deaths; private vehicles killed 83

New Delhi: Data on road accidents available with the Delhi Traffic Police has revealed that despite the lockdown, a total of 557 people were killed in road accidents this year till July 31, of which the maximum fatalities were that of pedestrians on the streets of the Capital.

Nearly 42 per cent of the victims among the total deaths due to road accidents in the capital this year have been recorded as pedestrians and the data showed that in a large number of the cases the offending vehicle as classified by the police was found to be private cars. However, it showed that around 47 per cent or 265 deaths were caused by unidentified vehicles or in hit-and-run cases.

According to the traffic police data, private cars were involved in 78 fatal accidents this year till July, in which 83 people lost their lives.

Earlier this year, an Assistance Commissioner of Police with the traffic police was killed in a hit-and-run by a truck driver, whose vehicle remained unidentified for more than two days before cops tracked down the driver and arrested him.

According to the data, 243 pedestrians have been killed while 239 were involved in fatal accidents.

Among the fatal deaths caused due to drunken driving, there was an uptick of two cases during the months of April, May, June and July this year, when the COVID-19 induced lockdown was imposed, compared to the same period in the previous year, where there were none, as per data.

In fact, on Monday, a Delhi Police constable was killed by a drunk teenager in a Honda City, who rammed into the policeman's patrolling vehicle.

However, the total number of fatal accidents saw a dip during the lockdown months, with 261 persons killed this year compared to 503 during the corresponding period last year.

The total number of accidents this year so far came to 2,164, in which 1,908 people were injured.