E-Paper
Deaths due to road accidents:‘Drivers don’t pay attention to poor vision, hearing power’
Study shows Only 16% of drivers with vision problem used correct glasses while the rest either had no specs or wore glasses with incorrect prescription.
There’s a growing incidence of deaths due to road accidents and experts say part of it could be attributed to our habit of ignoring health problems that affect driving skills.
“Drivers don’t pay attention to problems like poor vision and hearing power,” said Ajai Singh, HoD paediatric orthopaedics, King George’s Medical University while sharing data from a study on the occasion of World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on Sunday.
The transport department organised a marathon from 1090 Crossing to the CM’s residence on Sunday morning to mark World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. In the evening, the department organised a candle light vigil at the River Front to mark the occasion.
The study was jointly done by KGMU and AIIMS (New Delhi) to assess reaction/response of drivers to various situations. It included 253 taxi/four-wheeler drivers.
“We found that only 16% of drivers with vision problem used correct glasses while the remaining either had no specs or wore glasses with incorrect prescription,” said Singh.
“Of the total drivers we checked, 62% required hearing aid but none had them,” he added.
With poor vision or hearing, the drivers’ response to different situations like applying the brakes suddenly or swiftly moving the vehicle aside will get delayed, thereby making the situation vulnerable to accident, explained Singh.
“Surprisingly, 92% of the drivers said they knew the consequences of ignorance towards vision or hearing,” he said.
Statistics show Uttar Pradesh is witnessing an alarming rise in the number of road accidents and deaths due to such mishaps.
Over 15,000 people died and 20,000 were injured in more than 28,500 cases of road accidents in UP till August 31, 2018.
The number of accidents and fatalities till August this year registered a staggering growth of 11.84% and 13.63%, respectively, over the corresponding period of 2017, said transport department sources quoting a report prepared by the department.
The report listed 25,603 accidents killing 13,299 persons till August 31, 2017. In 2018, the total number of road accidents rose to 28,634, killing 15,111 persons till August 31. If the trend continues like this, number of deaths due to road accidents is feared to cross 22,500 by December 31.
