Road accidents in Thane decrease this year

More than 178 people have died in 170 fatal road accidents from January to October this year in Thane police commissionerate, as per the Thane traffic police data.

More than 178 people have died in 170 fatal road accidents from January to October this year in Thane police commissionerate, as per the Thane traffic police data.

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More than 50% of the deaths in road accidents are because of the rider not wearing a helmet, the police said.

The traffic police claimed the number of accidents has decreased by more than 10% this year.

The department claimed to have filed around 6 lakh cases against traffic violations this year.

The traffic department has also identified 37 black spots or accident-prone spots in Thane commissionerate and 108 black spots across the district.

Amit Kale, deputy commissioner of police, traffic, said, “The Supreme Court had given directives to form a district- level committee to reduce accidents by 10% every year. In Thane, a committee has been formed under Thane collector Rajesh Narvekar and the meeting of the committee was held on Tuesday. As per the report submitted in the meeting, we have managed to reduce the accident rate this year by more than 10% compared to last year.”

Kale said that from January to October 2019, a total of 170 fatal accidents were reported, in which, 178 people died. During the same time in 2018, a total of 215 people died in 208 accidents.

“The number of fatalities is fewer this year. The overall figures also shows a decrease in accidents — 808 accidents and 735 people injured this year. Last year, 855 people were injured in 1,022 accidents. Out of these, 50% of the accidents occurred on city roads, half of which are pedestrian accidents. The rest 50% accidents took place on state and national highways.”

Kale said 50% of the total deaths are due to bikers not wearing helmets. He claimed that they registered 6.58 lakh violations under the Motor Vehicles Act.

The committee has also identified 37 black spots in Thane and 108 black spots across the district.

“We have decided to visit each of the 108 black spots with the RTO and road authority officials and chalk out long- and short- term measures. In the next one month, we will prepare 108 plans for safer roads. If we are successful in curbing road accidents by 10% every year, the city will be free of accidents in the next 10 years,” Kale said.

A 500-metre stretch is tagged as a black spot if it has seen five accidents or more in the past three years or one fatal accident in which more than 10 people have died.

Amardeep Singh, 37, a resident of Thane said, “Most of the bike accidents have taken place due to potholes on roads in Thane, Kalyan and Bhiwandi. The traffic police should also take this into consideration while booking people for the traffic offences.”

“Heavy vehicles too lead to most accidents as they are unable to control overloaded vehicles on pothole-riddled roads,” he added.

Kale said the traffic police is the nodal authority and will alert the authority in case of potholes.

“The filling of pothole work is almost on the verge of completion on most roads and will be completed soon,” he added.