E-Paper
Speed devils behind Punjab’s 18% increase in road accident deaths
Of the 4589 deaths registered in Punjab in road accidents in the year 2021 with an average of 13 fatalities per day, time period of 6 pm to 9 pm has proven to be most risky, with 20.7% of deaths registered during this period.
Of the 4589 deaths registered in Punjab in road accidents in the year 2021 with an average of 13 fatalities per day, time period of 6 pm to 9 pm has proven to be most risky, with 20.7% of deaths registered during this period.
According to annual report on “Road Accidents and Traffic – 2021” submitted to director general of police (DGP) Punjab, Gaurav Yadav, in his office at Punjab Police Headquarters here, in 2021, an increase of 17.7% in road accident fatalities was observed in Punjab against the declining trend of the previous year (2020).
In the year 2021, a total of 3276 people died in road accidents due to over speeding followed by 522 deaths due to driving on wrong side.
A total of 537 people died due to road accidents in three Police Commissionerate jurisdictions, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Amritsar account for 11.7% in the total share of road accident fatalities in the state.
As per the socio-economic cost analysis, in Punjab, road accidents accounted for a loss of rupees ₹ 17,851 crore in the year 2021.
Age wise, 69% of the people involved in various fatal road accidents were from the age group of 18 to 45.
Three districts of Punjab Rupnagar, SBS Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib ranked number 1, 2 and 3, respectively where the rate of fatal road accidental deaths is almost 1.7 times the state’s average.
Out of 22, 10 districts reported a decrease in the road fatalities with district Jalandhar and Ludhiana as worse affected, where there ranking increased from 18th position to 10th position and from 13th position to 7th position respectively.
Estimated 2.29% of the total country’s population lives in Punjab, but its share in the total road accident deaths is varying from 2.8% to 3.5% of road accident deaths of India in the last five years. “375 cars, 982 two-wheelers are registered daily”
In the year 2021, a total of 5,16,968 motor vehicles were registered in Punjab account for an annual increasing growth rate of 0.22%.
Last year on an average daily, 375 new cars and 982 two-wheelers were registered in Punjab.
The total cumulative registered vehicle in Punjab till December 2021 was 1.21 crore vehicles (1,21,72,176).
72% of the total road fatalities occurred on national and state highways, both comprise of 5.93% of the total road length in Punjab.
A decline in the road fatalities was observed in the months of October and November while increase in the road accident fatalities in all the other months has been observed as compared with the previous year 2020.
Location wise, out of 5871 road accidents reported, 2435 (41%) occurred in urban areas of Punjab and 3436 (59%) in rural areas of Punjab. Rural areas of Punjab have a higher concentration of road accidents compared with the urban area available versus the percentage of road accidents. In the preceding year (2020), the percentage of road crashes in urban areas share in road accident fatalities was 43%.
Out of 22, 10 districts reported a decrease in the road fatalities with district Jalandhar and Ludhiana as worst hit, where the ranking went up from 18th position to 10th position and from 13th position to 7th position respectively. Over-speeding and driving on the wrong side are the leading cause of deaths in Punjab.
