Overspeeding was identified as the cause for 31,485 accidents out of a total of 34,647 accidents across the state in 2020-21.
Credit: DH file photo
A majority of the deaths on roads in the state have been caused due to overspeeding, data shared by Alok Kumar, ADGP, traffic and road safety, Karnataka, showed.
Sharing accident data from 2020 and 2021 from the State Crime Records Bureau, Kumar noted that overspeeding, coupled with poor driving skills or drunken driving, was the main killer on roads.
Of the total 34,178 road accidents in 2020, as many as 28,078 (82.15 per cent) were caused due to overspeeding. A total of 8,055 people were killed due to the same reason - 82.53 per cent of the total 9,760 deaths that year. The total number of deaths climbed to 9,101 in 2021, a whopping 90.67% of the total 10,038 deaths recorded that year.
Overspeeding was identified as the cause for 31,485 accidents out of a total of 34,647 accidents across the state that year.
About 15.34% in 2020 and 5.5 per cent of accidents in 2021 were caused by other reasons, including sudden obstructions, tyre bursts or mechanical defects.
Drunk driving, wrong-side driving, jumping signals and using mobile phones while driving accounted for a combined 2.5 per cent and 3.63 per centof all accidents, in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Kumar noted that these figures had to be contextualised while studying them.
“Just because the percentage of drunk driving cases is less does not necessarily mean the number of accidents caused by drunk driving is low. If the driver was also over-speeding, the police might have categorised the cause as over-speeding,” he explained.
The state police are aiming to procure more speed radar guns and alcometers for all districts and increase enforcement, education and engineering to bring down the number of deaths due to accidents across the state.
“Organisations that maintain roads across the state need to instal more crash barriers and signages for black spots and curves. We have to take people with us through engagement rather than just enforcing rules,” he said.