E-Paper
At 31.5%, Himachal road accident rate higher than national average: Data
The Himachal police department made a detailed presentation based on the New York Police Department (NYPD) Model of deep analytics which reflects that state’s road safety is poorer than national average, both in terms of population and vehicle numbers. The World Bank team complimented the HP Police for making road safety a priority
A five-member World Bank team headed by Vijetha Bezzam, co-task team leader, chaired a review meeting on road safety with officers of Himachal Pradesh police department in Shimla on Wednesday.
Representatives from Himachal Pradesh Road & Other Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited and Transport Research Laboratory, London, were also present in the meeting.
The police department made a detailed presentation based on the New York Police Department (NYPD) Model of deep analytics which reflects that state’s road safety is poorer than national average, both in terms of population and vehicle numbers.
As against the national average of 29.30% road traffic accidents (RTAs) per lakh of population, HP had a higher rate of 31.54.% Similarly, for deaths in RTAs per lakh of population, HP had a higher rate of 13.77% against national average of 10.93%. In terms of vehicles, RTAs per 10,000 vehicles was 15.10% for India while HP had a higher rate of 17.37%. For deaths in RTAS per 10,000 vehicles, against the national average of 5.08%, HP had a higher average of 6.93%. Severity wise out of every 100 RTAs deaths in case of HP is 44 against 37 for India and injuries for HP is 144 against 93 for India.
Himachal Pradesh director general of police Sanjay Kundu reiterated the objectives of the road safety adopted by Himachal Pradesh Police and said: “We are striving to bring the RTA severity norms of HP below the national average. We are also committed to bring down the RTAs and deaths by 50% by the year 2030, as declared by the United Nations General Assembly as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
The importance of building safer roads, smarter enforcement, providing better resources & mobility to police and community participation was highlighted before the World Bank team and provisioning of adequate funds and resources to the police department was requested. The World Bank was apprised that details of accident-prone stretches have been shared with state’s public works department to make provision of pedestrian infrastructure and crash barriers to reduce pedestrian hits, run-off accidents and removal of black spots to prevent head on collisions and junction collisions.
The World Bank team complimented the HP Police for making road safety a priority, as a result of which from years 2017 to 2022 road traffic accidents (RTAs) had reduced from 3114 to 2597, fatalities from 1203 to 1032 and injuries from 5452 to 4133.
There is 11% reduction in road traffic accidents (RTAS), 17% reduction in fatalities and 13% reduction in injuries during the period 1st January to 13th October, 2023, in comparison to similar period of last year. This has been achieved by state police despite the 10% growth of road lengths, 9% growth of vehicle registration annually and ever-increasing tourist inflow.
The achievements of the state police in terms of road safety including use of technology-based enforcement, online compounding of e-challans, weekly review by police headquarters, road safety activities through CSR, real time information dissemination through social media platforms and wider community participation were appreciated by the World Bank team.
