Hosur Road in Electronics City traffic police station limits has emerged as the most accident-prone stretch in the City, accounting for 146 of the 778 accidents reported in 2014.
This is followed by Bengaluru-Ballari Road under the Yelahanka limits and Hosur Road under the Madiwala limits with 117 and 106 accidents, respectively. Old Madras Road, which had featured as the top accident-prone link in 2013, has had lesser accidents last year.
This is according to the latest study on ‘Road Accidents in Bengaluru’, sourced from across 42 traffic police stations, by SLS Transport Training Institute and Consultancy on behalf of the Bengaluru City Traffic Police.
Additional Commissioner of Police (West) C H Prathap Reddy and Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M A Saleem released the report on Monday.
If Hosur Road saw the highest number of vehicular accidents, the outer ring roads attached to four different traffic police stations witnessed comparatively less number of road mishaps.
As in the two previous years, the Madiwala police station reported 233 accidents, of which 37 were fatal with 38 deaths, followed closely by Peenya and Yelahanka with a total 229 and 227 cases, respectively. Fraser Town, Cubbon Park, Shivajinagar and Upparpet traffic police stations are at the bottom of the list with less number of accidents (51, 44, 43 and 38, respectively).
Downward trend
The data on fatal accidents over the years shows a downward trend but remains unacceptably high.
Also, the month of December tops the list of accidents with 216 accidents, 25 of them fatal, followed by March and October with 211 and 210 accidents (24 and 25 fatal), respectively.
However, most number of fatal accidents (28) have occurred in the month of June. Going by the weekly data, Wednesday witnessed 849 accidents (95 fatal) and there is an increase in the occurrence of accidents (797) on Saturday and the least number happening on Sundays (721).
The report also indicates a disproportionately higher number of fatal crashes during non-peak hours during the day and during literally nil-traffic periods at night.
Bikers most injured
The data shows two-wheelers represent an injury predominant picture constituting more than 80 per cent of the total accidents.
More so, two-wheelers and cars constitute about 60 per cent of the fatal accidents. In fact, people in the age group of 12 to 19 years meeting with fatal accidents are on the rise over the last two years and more than 14 per cent of the accidents involving riders/drivers in the age groups of 19 to 35 are fatal.
The maximum number of accidents (3,932) have occurred when vehicles were moving straight, of which 426 have turned out to be fatal. About 18 per cent of the total casualties reported are pedestrians, and two-wheeler riders constitute about 40 per cent of the total casualties.
Most prominent factor
Besides, the study claims road being the most prominent factor in accident causation in terms of its terrain (frequent curves and changes in gradient), road condition, intersection geometry and inadequate road rehabilitation (medians, shoulders, footpath, markings and signs).
Saleem says the black-spot treatment measures on locations with repeated accidents have been implemented on a war-footing.
“It’s alarming to know that the same links are featuring repeatedly. However, even limited improvements on Old Madras Road have resulted in reduction in accidents on this stretch,” he points out in the report.
Published 09 November 2015, 21:05 IST