Good news! Fatal accidents come down

BANGALORE: Here is some cheering news in the New Year: accident rates have come down. For the second year running, the number of fatal accidents in Bangalore has reduced by nearly 10%, according to numbers collated till November 30. The traffic police say the numbers don’t lie.
The reasons attributed to this fall are the BBMP’s road dividers which saw driving discipline and strict enforcement of traffic rules.
Traffic police records show the number of fatal accidents was 662 where 686 lost their lives. Last year, 864 fatal accidents were reported in which 892 died. Even the non-fatal accidents showed a dip, with 5,623 cases compared to last year’s figure of 6,908.
The number of fatal accidents in 2008, too, came down compared to 2007. Traffic officials say even after adding December figures, the total fatal accidents for 2009 would be 740 or 750, which would be lesser than last year’s 864.
Interestingly, the corresponding figures for various cases have gone up. The number of cases booked under MV Act, KP Act and towing cases was 21.87 lakh by November-end itself compared to last year’s tally of 19 lakh, which itself was a raise from 13 lakh recorded in 2007.
Even the fine collected under these cases crossed Rs 30 crore by November-end compared to last year’s Rs 27.48 crore. Traffic police say that total fine collected is likely to touch Rs 35 crore for 2009 once the December figures are tabulated.
The number of fatal accidents started rising from 2005, with 796 accidents and 880 in 2006 and reaching the highest at 957 in 2007. But for the last two years, the numbers are sliding down.
WHY ACCIDENTS ARE LESS
According to additional commissioner of police (traffic) Praveen Sood, credit for the reduction must go to the traffic police and BBMP. “The concrete road divider built by the Palike has contributed a lot to streamlining of traffic and reduced the number of head-on collisions which resulted in deaths. Also strict enforcement of rules by the traffic police has helped to a great extent,’’ he says.
FOCUSED ENFORCEMENT
He says contrary to popular perception, traffic police had focused on three major violations — overspeeding, drunken driving and a simple yet common violation, signal jumping. All three violation cases have increased significantly over the last one year indicating that traffic police are pro-active in enforcing regulations, which in turn could be one of the reasons behind accidents coming down. Acting against overspeeding, drunken driving and signal jumping means acting against three basic and yet major causes of accidents.
toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com