Drive carefully, Mumbai has 39 of Maharashtra’s 634 accident-prone ‘black spots’

The list was prepared on the directives of a committee set by the Apex court in 2014 for curbing road accidents in the country.

The traffic and transport authorities in Maharashtra have identified 634 accident-prone ‘black spots’ across the state, that witnessed five or more fatal or severe accidents in the past three years. Mumbai ranked third on the list, with 39 such accident-prone spots.

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A senior official from the transport department, who was part of the process, said that the identification of black spots is mainly done by the police. This list was prepared on the directives of a committee set by the Apex court in 2014  for curbing road accidents in the country.

Of the 39 black spots identified in Mumbai, eight spots have witnessed fatal accidents claiming nearly 80 lives in the past three years. The remaining 31 spots have seen severe accidents that led to serious injuries for victims.

The state’s only expressway —Mumbai-Pune Expressway—has 11 black spots, and all of them fall between the Panvel and Lonavala stretch. Two of these are in Panvel municipal limit, one is in Pune rural jurisdiction, while the other eight are in Raigad district.

Yogesh Ambe, a road safety expert, suggested that the team studying each black spot should comprise of an enforcement official, engineers, road experts to identify the reason behind the accidents and to recommend corrective - short and long term - measures that need to be taken.

“The need-based analysis of each black spot is needs to be done before any corrective steps are taken. Engineering solutions like flyovers are very expensive and hence cannot be possible everywhere. But at some spots, even temporary interventions could work as a solution,” said Ambe.

Of the total 634 accident-prone sites, the maximum number of black spots were reported in Kolhapur district (61), followed by Nashik rural district (58). Other districts that have more than 35 such sites include Wardha, Sangli and Dhule.

Every year, Maharashtra witnesses more than 63,000 accidents on an average, in which about 13,000 people lose their lives and around 39,000 get injured. The latest countrywide accident data released by transport department highlighted that Mumbai ranks fourth in the highest number of accidents and third in the number of fatalities.