Roads in Capital safest among all metros
Fewer people are dying in accidents on Delhi roads now. Contrary to the national trend, the Capital in 2012 registered the lowest number of road deaths in the past 10 years. Subhendu Ray reports.
Fewer people are dying in accidents on Delhi roads now.
Contrary to the national trend, the Capital in 2012 registered the lowest number of road deaths in the past 10 years.
While they have made Delhi roads safer, the police's track record in cracking accident cases has not been that great. According to the traffic police's annual report, only 55.21 per cent cases of accidents have been solved.
According to police, 1,822 fatal accidents were registered last year, which is about 11% less than 2,047 fatal accidents in 2011. The number of road deaths has also come down from 2,066 in 2011 to 1,866 in 2012.
Sudhir Yadav, special commissioner of police (traffic), said: "This is an outstanding achievement, particularly in view of the fact that the city's population between 2001 and 2011 has increased by 18 per cent and vehicular population went up by 93.13%."
Delhi Police said that special emphasis on pedestrian safety, some road specific interventions to curb speeding, continuous crackdown on drunk drivers and disciplining commercial vehicles have helped in significantly reducing fatal road accidents.
"From early 2012, we took several measures, which resulted in a steep decline in pedestrian deaths. We are confident that this year too we will be able to make a record by keeping road deaths close to 1,800," said Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic). He said bringing down fatal road accidents further would be the prime focus of Delhi traffic police this year.
"Delhi is the only metro city, which has been showing a constant drop in road deaths for the past three years. This year, the drop in deaths is quite significant," he said.
However, said sources, the actual figure of fatal accidents would be clear only after the all cases are solved. This would take at least two months.