As per official, a crash data over a three-year period was analysed to understand and gain better knowledge of the risks on Delhi's road network and their association with deaths and serious injuries.
It will help plan interventions to make the roads safer, HT reported citing officials.
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As per the report titled “Delhi Road Safety Report: Data to Action", 18 crash hot spots saw more than 10 deaths in the three years between 2019 and 2021. As reported by HT, the report has been prepared by the transport department in collaboration with the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre at the IIT Delhi and Vital Strategies, a public health organisation, with support from Delhi Traffic Police and the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety.
These areas include: Mukarba Chowk which reported 19 deaths, Majnu Ka Tila-Outer Ring Road Stretch with 16 deaths, near Signature Bridge 16 deaths, Azadpur Chowk with 15 deaths, Punjabi Bagh Chowk which reported 12 deaths, Nirankari Chowk with 12 deaths, Burari Chowk reported 12 deaths.
Other areas which include are Seelampur Chowk with 12 deaths, Ghazipur roundabout with 10 deaths and Shivaji Park Metro Station with 10 deaths, among others, the report stated.
The national capital is said to have most number of traffic accident deaths among other Indian cities, as per the HT report. According to Delhi Crash Report 2021 prepared by the city’s traffic police, the number of fatalities due to road accidents in Delhi totalled 1,239 in 2021, an increase from 1,196 fatalities in the previous year. Pedestrian deaths constituted a share more than 40 percent of the total. In 2021, 40.7 percent of the total persons killed in road crashes were pedestrians. Scooter/motorcycle riders were the second most vulnerable victims constituting 38.1 percent of the total persons killed, as per the 2021 Delhi Road crash report.
In 2021, 22.5 percent of the total road crash victims lost their lives as compared to 24.6 percent in 2020, as per the 2021 Delhi Road crash report. More than half of all road crash deaths globally are among vulnerable road users: pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and three-wheeler occupants, it stated.
As per the new report, eight cyclists’ deaths were reported on Rohtak Road while six each on Mathura Road and Ring Road between 2019-21.
Apart from this, 10 hot spots deadly for pedestrians include Baba Kharak Singh Marg which inlcudes 10 deaths, GT Karnal Road with 84 deaths, Netaji Subhash Marg with 11 deaths, GT Road from Dilshad Garden Metro station to ISBT Kashmere Gate reported 30 deaths.
In 2019-2021, the Outer Ring Road recorded 121 pedestrian deaths, with three deaths per km, the report stated. Apart from this, 139 motorcyclist deaths was also recorded in the three-year period, with three deaths per kilometre.
“The deaths in 2019, 2020, and 2021 were mapped and death rate was calculated using the population of each district," the report said. “District North (574) and District Central (547) recorded the highest number of deaths, while District New Delhi reported the highest death rate of 14."
Officials added that the transport department has taken up multiple initiatives to improve safety at junctions and stretches which are accident prone, as reported by HT.
Ashish Kundra, principal secretary, transport said, “The transport department of the government of NCT (national capital territory) of Delhi is committed towards leading by example and working with global road safety experts and various government agencies in cohesion to build a city where no lives are lost on road."
“The transport department partners are currently working on 15 crash spot locations to reduce crashes. The junctions are proposed to be redesigned to ensure they are pedestrian-friendly," he told HT on anonymity.
“Some of the junction redesigns are being tested using interim transformation materials such as temporary road markings, bollards, traffic cones, and paint to demonstrate the feasibility of design strategies," he added.
Geetam Tiwari, professor and head of the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre at IIT Delhi said, “The new report is an important step towards achieving the global target of reducing road crash death by 50% by 2030."
“Road crash deaths have been reducing in NCT of Delhi since 2012. However, it continues to be high for the capital," she said.
“As the quality of crash data improves, we expect better and more effective interventions in the future to achieve the annual targets set by the government."
From January to October 2022, a total of 897 road accidents took place in Gautam Buddh Nagar, in which 354 people died and 680 were injured, police had told news agency PTI.
According to a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) report, a total of 1,997 road accidents occurred in 2021 due to the use of mobile phone by drivers while driving, which claimed 1,040 lives. A total of 4,12,432 road accidents occurred in 2021, which claimed 1,53,972 lives while 3,84,448 people were injured.
The report titled 'Road accidents in India -- 2021', further stated that 555 road accidents took place due to jumping of red light which claimed 222 lives in 2021. Total number accidents and death due to potholes in 2021 respectively stood at 3,625 and 1,481.
The report also noted that road accidents are multi-causal which requires multi-pronged measures to mitigate the problems through concerted efforts of all agencies of both central government and state governments.
Meanwhile, on 18 January, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had said efforts by all are necessary to reduce road accidents by 50 percent before the end of 2025. Participating in a 4-hour telethon and outreach campaign “Sadak Suraksha Abhiyan" during the Road Safety week, he said a law will soon be brought in the country to determine the working hours of truck drivers.
