Yamuna Expressway: Over speeding and driver fatigue major causes of accidents

GREATER NOIDA: Data issued by Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) reveals that over 1,200 deaths have been reported on the accident prone 165-km long Yamuna Expressway in past 12 years, since its inauguration.

According to the data, between 2012 and 2023, there were 1,321 deaths, 11,168 injuries, and 7,625 accidents on the expressway. As many as 3,364 accidents occurred on the e-way just because the driver dozed off while driving. A total of 552 deaths have been reported due to this. The information was obtained through an RTI query filed by Agra-based road safety activist and Supreme Court lawyer Kishan Chand Jain.

Officials said that the maximum deaths were caused because exhausted drivers dozed off while driving on the stretch which has a 100 kmph speed limit for LMVs.

“YEIDA’s data reveals that the second biggest factor of 293 casualties on the expressway was negligent driving, followed by 201 deaths due to over-speeding. In 12 years, the expressway registered over 23.21 crore vehicular movement. But it also witnessed 90 deaths in 781 road accidents caused by tyre burst and 266 drunken driving accidents which killed 89 people,” the data mentions.

The data underscores the critical issue of driver drowsiness being a major contributor to killing a lot more people than anything else on Yamuna Expressway. “A road safety policy should be introduced based on this data. Government must bring a law to ascertain how many hours a person should be on a steering wheel in 24 hours,” said Amit Kumar, a commuter.

A Lucknow based road safety expert, said, “UP has provided direct road connectivity infrastructure connecting east to west, but drivers are not acting responsibly. If we calculate the total distance between Purvanchal Expressway, Lucknow-Agra expressway, and Yamuna expressway, it’s around 810 km.

“Neither the people traveling in cars, nor bus transport service providers, especially the private ones, are taking sufficient rest in the journey. They feel overconfident about their driving skills, which is dangerous,” said Abrar Ahmed, an expert.

“Previously there were

provisions of giving tea for free to drivers at toll plazas along with an awareness campaign to stop vehicles in case they are feeling sleepy. However, the situation on ground is different and no such orders are followed,” said Karan Singh, another commuter