Deaths due to accidents in a downward trend in Karnataka

A total of 761 deaths were recorded on roads across the state in July 2023, a 30.4% reduction from May, when 1,094 people lost their lives.

The number of deaths on the Bengaluru-Mysuru access-controlled highway stood at 8 in July, a significant decrease from 28 in June and 29 in May. A similar trend has been observed across the state over the past couple of months, police data shows.

A total of 761 deaths were recorded on roads across the state in July 2023, a 30.4 per cent reduction from May, when 1,094 people lost their lives.

The number of accidents on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway accounts for a very small portion of accidents across the state, noted Alok Kumar, ADGP, Traffic and Road Safety, Karnataka, who told DH that the police’s objective is to ensure that number of deaths on the highway remain at least in single digits for the rest of this year.

The police has focused on other accident-prone districts besides Bengaluru to curb the number of deaths overall.

Last year, Tumakuru took the top spot with 773 deaths, followed by Bengaluru at 772. Bengaluru Rural and Belagavi districts followed close behind.

Kumar noted that, on average, 30 lives are lost every day on roads in the state.

Until June 2023, a total of 5,804 people in the state were killed in road accidents but if falling trend were to continue, the total number of deaths by the end of the year should remain under 9,000, as opposed to over 11,700 deaths recorded in 2022, he remarked.

Access-controlled highway or expressway?

The Bengaluru-Mysuru Road is not an expressway but an access-controlled highway, according to National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). An NHAI officer insists official notifications had always called the road an “access-controlled expressway”.

However, PM Modi and then Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai called the road “an expressway” when it was inaugurated in March 2023.

To be fair, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has described the road as a “national highway”.

The NHAI official listed 4 differences between an NH and an expressway.

a) In expressways, width of each lane is 3.75 metres. On NHs, it’s 3.5 metres.

b) Expressways have higher shoulder width.

c) The max speed limit on expressways is 120 kmph. On NHs, it’s 100 kmph.

d) E-ways have higher tolls.