450 people died every year in road accidents in Gautam Budh Nagar since 2019: Traffic police data

According to the data provided by the Noida traffic police, an accident was reported in Gautam Budh Nagar every eight hours in which at least two people sustained injuries and one or two lost their lives every day.

At least 470 people lost their lives last year in over 1,100 road accidents in Gautam Budh Nagar and the numbers have remained more or less the same since 2019, showed the Gautam Budh Nagar traffic police data, except for the Covid pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, despite the police stepping up enforcement.

The traffic police data further showed that accident, deaths and injury figures of 2022 and 2023 are similar to those reported in 2019 despite a high jump in issuance of e-challans (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

The data further showed that accident, deaths and injury figures of 2022 and 2023 are similar to those reported in 2019 despite a high jump in issuance of e-challans. As compared to 2022, in 2023, the traffic police issued 200% more e-challans, reflects the data.

According to the traffic police data, in 2023, 1,887,731 e-challans were issued for traffic violations while in 2022, 588,345 e-challans were issued. A total of 1,007,656 e-challans were issued for driving without helmet followed by 205,253 for no-parking and 157,310 for wrong lane driving in 2023.”

According to the data provided by the Noida traffic police, an accident was reported in Gautam Budh Nagar every eight hours in which at least two people sustained injuries and one or two lost their lives every day.

“In 2023, 1,176 accident cases were reported in which 470 people died and 858 were injured. In 2022, 437 people died in 1,122 accidents while 856 sustained injuries.”

The data shows that accidents and fatalities decreased during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 but the figures of the last two years are somewhat the same as that in 2019.

Anurag Kulshrestha, advisor to Gautam Budh Nagar’s road safety cell and president of TRAX, a road safety NGO, said, “Increasing digital enforcement cannot decrease accidents. They (police) are shifting problems instead of solving them. If a junction or accident spot emerges due to faulty infrastructure, they shift the issue to another junction instead of solving it. This is the main reason why 2022 and 2023 have similar number of road accidents as compared to 2019.”

“Non-friendly pedestrian infrastructure and U-turns are the main reasons for the rise in accidents in the district,” said Kulshrestha.

“For example, the right lane is dedicated for overtaking. But in Noida you will find that right two lanes are blocked for U-turns, which confuse drivers and force them to drive on the wrong lanes,” he said.

Deputy commissioner of police, traffic, Anil Kumar Yadav said, “When an accident spot emerges, traffic police informs the authorities concerned to rectify the fault. A majority of these road accidents are due to speeding, violations of lane driving, wrong-side driving, and not following rules.”

“To curb accidents, the traffic police increased enforcement on roads and reduced speed limits. Other measures are also being taken to curb the accidents,” said Yadav.

Notably, the commissionerate came into force in Noida in January 2020 and the traffic police gets more personnel and resources under the new system.