Pulling the plug on deaths

Year 2009 was the worst in the past decade as the national Capital reported the highest number of fatal accidents. In a total of 2,272 fatal accidents, 2,325 people lost their lives. Delhi police wants to change this.

Year 2009 was the worst in the past decade as the national Capital reported the highest number of fatal accidents. In a total of 2,272 fatal accidents, 2,325 people lost their lives. Delhi police wants to change this.

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Going against the national trend, the police are aiming to register the lowest fatal accidents in the city in the past 10 years.

The first half of the current year has shown a steep decline in the number of fatal road accidents — 916 — a number much lower than the Capital’s average of half yearly data of road mishaps.

"Every year over 2,000 road accidents take place in Delhi. This year we are hopeful to bring the number down to below 1,600," said a senior officer of Delhi police.

And what is the police's plan of action? The main causes of road mishaps are drink driving and dangerous driving, the senior officer said.

"Through rigorous prosecution, we could drastically bring down violation of traffic rules by commercial vehicles, drink driving and dangerous driving. This continuous exercise actually brought down road mishaps to a large extent," said Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic).

The Delhi traffic police have also started the process of identifying vulnerable accident prone points on city's important arterial roads.

After the identification process is over they would put rumble strips, cats' eyes and spring posts near features on these roads, said BS Bassi, chief of Delhi traffic police.

He said: "Some geometrical changes to existing road engineering works will definitely reduce road mishaps further in the Capital."

The latest report by National Crime Record Bureau showed that in 2009 the national Capital topped the list of road fatalities among all the metros in the country.

"Our target is to bring down road fatalities by 20% at least," said Garg. He said since 2005, road deaths in the city have always stood above 2,000 every year.