Road accidents are increasing: Gadkari

Despite taking a number of steps including creating public awareness about road safety, the number of road accidents and fatalities continued to be increasing, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday.

Quoting provisional data obtained from the Supreme Court Committee on Road safety for January-September 2019 in respect of 26 states and 5 Union Territories, Gadkari said that though the overall decrease in road accidents by 2.2% in comparison to the corresponding period of 2018, the number of death increased by 0.2% during the same period.

During January-September 2019, over 3.39 lakh accidents took place in which more than 1,12,735 people lost their lives and over 3.45 lakh were injured.

In the previous period, over 3.46 lakh accidents took place, causing the death of 1,12,469 people and injuring 3.55 lakh person.

Being a signatory to the Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety organised by World Health Organisation in 2015 to reduce the accidents and deaths by 50% by 2020, the Centre has been prodding states to enforce road rules strictly.

Attributing road engineering as one of the major cause for road accidents, the minister said that the Road Ministry prepared two projects worth Rs 7,000 crore to rectify the black spots and sought World Bank and Asian Development Bank funding.

The Amended Motor Vehicle Act which came to force on September 1, across the country, proposes a hefty penalty. The new act aims to curb increasing accident rates not to increase state revenue, he said.

Last week, Gadkari said after the implementation of the revised Act, the accidents have come down in several states while few states the number continued to increase.