Cops aim to reduce road fatalities by 25% in five years

The Gurgaon police along with local authorities will launch several campaigns from Monday to reduce road fatalities by at least 25% in the next five years.

The Gurgaon police along with local authorities will launch several campaigns from Monday to reduce road fatalities by at least 25% in the next five years.

The number of road accident deaths marginally reduced from 487 in 2013 to 430 in 2014, the traffic police said. (HT File Photo)

The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) and the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) will initiate special programmes for better driver education and publicity campaigns to highlight the dangers of erratic lane changes and stricter police enforcement to curb road accidents.

The campaign will also involve participation of the National Highways Authority of India, Public Works Department, judiciary, educational institutions and hospitals. Hoardings with road safety messages will be installed across the city soon, the police said.

While the car-free day campaign has already helped in reducing traffic and pollution in the city, road shows will be conducted and pamphlets will be distributed at major intersections to spread road safety awareness, the police said.

Gurgaon commissioner of police Navdeep Singh Virk said, “Our aim is to reduce road fatalities by 2020. We have identified accident-prone zones and teams are already working on remedial measures.”

As per the official data, 770 road accidents took place in Gurgaon from January 1 to October 17. The police have also issued 2,18,332 challans for various traffic offences over the same period.

A first-of-its-kind comprehensive analysis of accident trends at black spots showed that efforts to fix such locations could help reduce road fatalities. While the number of deaths was 487 in 2013, it came down to 430 in 2014, the police said.

Black spots are locations which report abnormally high number of road accidents. The police had flagged off a programme to identify black spots on roads for the first time in 2015.

Road safety experts explained that certain points or stretches had turned black spots because of poor road design, absence of appropriate signage, blind turns, and lack of traffic signals.

Moreover, the police have decided to hold a meeting with local bodies once in three months to discuss upcoming events/functions in Gurgaon that might result in traffic congestion.

The campaign also involves drives against drink driving. Drink driving challans constituted 23% of the total challans. The number of challans have increased 10 times in the last seven years.

“The fine for drink driving is only `500 and offenders get bail easily. If the fine is increased to `2,000 and the offender is not granted bail easily, people will start taking the issue seriously. We have proposed this to the judiciary,” Virk said.