Road crashes in Delhi down 14 pc in 2019, most victims males: NCRB

Altogether, 1.54 lakh people were killed across India in 4,37,396 cases of 'road accidents' that also rendered 4.39 lakh people injured, the data for 2019 revealed. MHA officials said the NCRB report for 2019 shows that the number of road accidents in most states have declined and held the new Motor Vehicles Act (MVA) as a reason behind the improvement.

Road accidents in Delhi came down by 14 per cent in 2019 when 226 lesser people were killed in the crashes in comparison to 2018, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. The national capital recorded 5,601 road mishaps in which 1,508 people were killed and another 4,949 injured, down from 6,517 accident cases, 1,734 deaths and 5,640 injured people in 2018, the data showed.

The number of such cases was much more in 2017 when 6,672 accidents were recorded across Delhi. However, the number of people killed that year stood at 1,638 and those injured was 6,086, stated the NCRB data from that year. A gender-wise study of the victims done by the NCRB, which functions under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), states that more males than females died and suffered injuries in the road crashes.

In 2019 and 2017, males formed the 90 per cent of the victims who died in road crashes in the national capital, while the figure stood at 89 per cent in 2018, according to the data. Both in 2019 and 2018, 85 per cent of the people injured in road crashes in the national capital were males, while the figure stood at 87 per cent in 2017, it added.   Altogether, 1.54 lakh people were killed across India in 4,37,396 cases of 'road accidents' that also rendered 4.39 lakh people injured, the data for 2019 revealed.

MHA officials said the NCRB report for 2019 shows that the number of road accidents in most states have declined and held the new Motor Vehicles Act (MVA) as a reason behind the improvement. "Road accidents that form 92.2 percent of the total traffic accidents have consistently declined in the country. This may be attributed to better implementation of laws such as the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA)," a senior MHA official told PTI. "Road accidents due to over speeding, which was a major cause of road accidents in previous years and driving under the influence of drugs/alcohol in the country have declined nationally owing to amendments in the MVA," the official said.

In the national capital, the deaths in cases of road accidents have seen a major decline from 1,734 to 1,508, the official said, adding, this was largely due to focused enforcement drives carried out by the Delhi Police in black spots and accident prone areas, road safety awareness campaigns carried out with special emphasis on school children and auto and bus drivers. The placement of CCTV cameras at important traffic junctions, amendments in the MVA and suggestions given by Delhi Police in aspects related to road engineering which have been undertaken and are continuing, such as street lighting, grills on central verges , foot overbridges and shifting of bus stops to less congested areas also helped, the official added. "Delhi Police have also been carrying out accident cause analysis of each fatal accident and rectification measures are being taken accordingly. In addition, traffic police deployment is being done as per time and space analysis of traffic," the MHA official said.

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