Covid-19 lockdown: Death by accident in Navi Mumbai, Panvel down by 37%

With the city under lockdown for more than six months, deaths by accidents on major highways in Navi Mumbai and Panvel are down by around 37% this year compared

With the city under lockdown for more than six months, deaths by accidents on major highways in Navi Mumbai and Panvel are down by around 37% this year compared to last year.

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The death rate was especially low in the lockdown period by 62% from March to August. The Panvel Division, however, still continues to report a high number of accidents largely due to potholes and also the fact that the division includes the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Sunil Lokhande, said, “The major reason behind the drop in the number of accidents is the lockdown that happened. No vehicles, except the ones providing essential services, were on the road when the lockdown was in place. Even as places began to open up, most of them still continue to work from home and that is making all the difference in the accident rates.”

The total number of accidents that occurred from January to August 2020 was reported to be 308 while the corresponding figure for the same period in 2019 was 490.

In this year, 111 people have died and 200 suffered serious injuries in road accidents, a drop from 179 and 390, respectively, in 2019.

The months of January and February this year reported higher number of accidents and fatalities as compared to last year, but from March, when the coronavirus pandemic started spreading and the lockdown began, the numbers could be seen decreasing.

Of the four divisions of traffic in Navi Mumbai – Panvel, Port, Turbhe and Vashi – the maximum number of accidents were reported in Panvel division, which includes Kalamboli, Panvel Taluka and New Panvel traffic units. The number of accidents is high in Panvel division due to Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

Police Inspector Madhukar Bhatte from New Panvel traffic unit said, “The stretch from Bhatanbhogda to Kalamboli falls under Navi Mumbai traffic unit. While some of the parts fall under New Panvel unit, some comes under Kalamboli unit. In the past, there have been many initiatives to curb the accidents on the expressway but now since the pandemic started, all of them have been stalled.”

Meanwhile, Deepak Singh, a Kharghar-based activist said, “Panvel is always an accident-prone zone and the reason is bad condition of roads, non-availability of lights and proper safety sign boards. Lack of discipline in following traffic rule is also a reason for accidents. As per my Right to Information application to police zone II, more than 300 people lost their lives in three years only in Panvel zone. The reply said that there were a total of 341 deaths and 598 accidents in three years from 2016 to 2018.”

Executive engineer Kishore Patil from PWD said, “The patch from Kalamboli to BARC junction is completely concretised and hence there is no way that there could be any potholes. We are conducting regular surveys and if we find any patch that needs repair, we get the work done immediately.”

Pandemic has affected safety initiatives (SUBHEAD)

‘Campus with Helmet’ and ‘Traffic Family Cop’ programmes were initiated in 2019 and 2020, respectively, in schools, colleges and industrial areas. “Around 100 campuses including private and government offices, and colleges were introduced to ‘Campus with Helmet. We had sought public participation and were receiving good response. But with the lockdown and colleges being shut, the programmes have been stalled for the moment. The programmes ensure that nobody enters the campus without a helmet and none leaves without one,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (traffic), Arun Patil, said.

Meanwhile, the Family Traffic Cop initiative involves students. Each student poses as a family traffic cop to make sure his/her family followed the traffic rules. During the Road Safety Week in January this year, children were approached to help traffic police in educating their families in following traffic rules.

“We planned to carry on with the initiative and involve the young ‘cops’ but it has now taken a back seat,” Patil said.