Speeding vehicles and restless drivers jack up road accidents in Bengaluru

Road accidents have increased post-lockdown in the city, with Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) figures showing 2,647 accidents and 505 fatal ones until October this year.

Traffic police attribute the alarming rise to increasing private vehicles and uneven road surface. In recent times, speeding has also resulted in a number of accidents. More than 49,000 cases of speeding have been registered until October 2021. In 2019, 61,531 speeding cases were registered, while despite the lockdown in 2020, the number was 59,071 cases.

The monthly average for all three years still remains close to 5,000 cases.

“Post-lockdown, the number of private vehicles, especially two-wheelers, has drastically increased and thus the possibilities of accidents have also increased,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B R Ravikanthe Gowda said.

He added awareness was low among people on how to drive on different roads and they were in a hurry to reach their destination. “Especially on elevated/high-density corridors and ring roads, more accidents are happening,” he said.

Traffic police have consulted with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to instal sectional speed regulators, mainly on elevated corridors, since manual intervention is dangerous on the speedways. “The NHAI has agreed in principle”, Gowda said. There are plans in the works to instal speed violation detection cameras in the middle of the roads in 50 junctions which will soon have smart enforcement.

Bad roads, boon or bane?

As much as they contribute to accidents, bad roads see slow movement of vehicles and fewer accidents, traffic police believe. Motorists tend to speed on better roads to make up for the time they lose while navigating through potholed roads, which also leads to accidents sometimes, they say.

Regarding the Thanisandra accident where a BBMP official claimed no pothole existed but only surface differences, Gowda was firm that the traffic police have photo and video evidence to show the surface was uneven. “All potholes are surface differences,” he said, adding that the complaint was not lodged suo motu by the department.

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