MOHALI
: The district tops Punjab with 92 black spots, where 62% of its fatal
road accidents took place.
This was revealed in the first report on ‘Identification and rectification of Punjab road accident black spots’ released under Tandrust Punjab Mission by KS Pannu, director of the mission, on Thursday. He said Mohali, with 92 spots, was followed by Ludhiana (91).
The report has been prepared by a research report team led by additional director-general of police (traffic) Sharad S Chauhan, Mohali SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal, Punjab traffic adviser Navdeep K Asija and Punjab vision-zero project manager Arbab Ahmad.
The report said this year till June, 198 road fatalities were reported in Mohali.
Of these, 123 accident deaths took place at 32 black spots identified by the
Mohali police
, making it 62% of the total fatal accidents. The most prone was the Airport Road, which has major flaws in design and engineering, making it pedestrian and cyclist unfriendly, the report added.
The report also included a comprehensive study on ‘Road safety analysis and identification of accident-prone areas in Mohali’ that revealed that the district was rated second in highest number of road accident deaths in the state, with Ludhiana leading.
Asija had also conducted a three-dimensional (3D) safety audit using drones to investigate the geometric design of three blind spots on the Airport Road.
Flaws in road design and engineeringThe report revealed major flaws in design and engineering. The 3D audit was conducted on road crossings near Sohana gurdwara, IISER intersection and sectors 66-67 light-point intersections. The report suggested construction of modern roundabouts at these strategic locations to make them safer.
In 2017, as many as 310 fatalities were reported in Mohali against 290 in 2016.
32 fatal points fall on NH Of the 92 accident-prone areas or black spots in the district, 32 (35%) are on the national highway, especially where it crosses the urban area. A study conducted by a group of residents jointly with an NGO, ArriveSAFE, and Club D2S said on the 7-km stretch on NH-22 between Derabassi and Zirakpur, 148 road crashes have occurred in the past 28 months, leaving 49 dead. Harman Singh Sidhu, president of ArriveSAFE, said, “We need to rectify the designs of highways, giving enough space to pedestrians and cyclists, and make separate lanes for two-wheelers. Plugging of illegal openings to NHs can save many lives.”