Accident death figures dip to lowest in a decade

Pedestrians, two-wheeler riders most vulnerable: Traffic police

The number of deaths in road accidents in the City have gone down considerably in 2014 and hit the lowest in the last ten years, according to statistics released by the Bengaluru Traffic Police.

However, the cause for concern is that nearly half of those who lost their lives are pedestrians.

Of the total 729 deaths in road accidents in the year, pedestrians are the worst-hit with 331of them getting killed. As many as 332 two-wheeler users have lost their lives in road accidents in 2014.

The traffic police officials on Thursday said in a press meet that safety of pedestrians and two-wheeler users will be their focus in 2015.

Compared to 771 fatalities that occurred in 2013, 729 persons died in 2014 while the number of major accidents dropped from 737 in 2013 to 703 in 2014. In fact, overall 5,004 accidents occurred last year compared to 5,230 that took place in 2013 in the City. In these accidents, 992 vehicles got damaged, said police officials.

Officials said that the department also netted Rs 65.92 crore as fine during various enforcement drives conducted and booked 74,36,336 cases to rein in the traffic violations in 2014.

Additional Commissioner (Traffic), B Dayananda, said: “We have identified ten spots as the most accident-prone and they account for 38 per cent of the total accidents occurring in the City. Our team, along with experts from other departments including BDA, BBMP, Transport etc, are making changes and improvements required in road widening, traffic diversion etc.”

Old Madras Road, Hosur Road, Outer Ring Road (near Nagarabavi) and Airport Road occupy the top four black spots, he added.

In the last ten years, the vehicle population has grown tremendously in the City from 24,67,270 vehicles in 2005 to 53,92,847 vehicles, Dayananda said. For safety of pedestrians, Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) launched a Sugama Safe Walk project in 2014 that will be taken forward this year too. Other such initiatives will also be announced shortly, he added.

Maximum violations
One of the most vulnerable road users– two wheeler drivers– seem to care less for their own safety.

That explains the traffic police booking maximum number of cases– 16,67,248– for helmet-less driving in the City last year. This is followed by cases booked for jumping signals– 6,88,027– followed by 5,29,201 cases booked for violations of traffic lanes. The police also booked 2,90,705 cases for using mobile phones while driving, 55,138 cases against drunken driving, 1,18,264 for over speeding, and 1,01,072 cases for dangerous driving.

Besides, 22,574 cases were booked against auto rickshaw drivers for refusing to ply and 13,104 cases for demanding excess fares.

Suspension of licences
Last year, the traffic police seized 16,194 driving licences from the motorists for violating traffic rules and have sent these to the Transport Department for suspension.

As many as 497 registration certificates of vehicles have also been sent to the department for cancellation.