The Hindu : Steady decline in rate of road accidents in the State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 23, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Steady decline in rate of road accidents in the State

By S. Anil Radhakrishnan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 22. Although the number of road accidents being reported in a day in the State is on the increase, there is a steady decline in the rate of accidents during the last four years.

The accident rate (number of accidents per 1,000 vehicle) in the State has come down from 16.7 in 2002 to 15.5 in 2003 as per the official road accident statistics in the State. This is against the national average of 7.8 accidents per 1,000 vehicles.

The Director of the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (Natpac), T. Elangovan, told The Hindu that the decline in accident rate is mainly due to the awareness about road accidents, introduction of signages, channelisers, medians in many accident-prone stretches of the State and due to the introduction of Highway patrols and enforcement of rules by Police and Motor Vehicles Departments.

The number of injury cases in road accidents reported per day has come down from 136 in 2002 to 133 in 2003. However, the death due to road accidents in the State has remained static at 8 deaths per day as in the last year.

In the case of number of road accidents per day, there is a slight increase during the last four years. From 102 accidents reported in a day in 2000, it has gone up to 105 in 2001, 106 in 2002 and to 107 in 2003.

As many as 28,914 accidents occurred in the State during January to September 2003 claiming the lives of 2,122 persons and causing injuries to 35,900 persons. As many as 7,728 accidents occurred on the National Highways passing through the State and accounting for 28.7 per cent of the total accidents that occurred during the nine months. Similarly, 4,077 accidents occurred on State highways, which form 14.1 per cent of the total accidents. Thus, highway network, which form about six per cent of the total road network of the State, accounted for nearly 43 per cent of the accidents.

Of the 35,100 vehicles involved in road accidents during the period, 12,981 cases were involving two-wheelers. As many as 5,858 autorickshaws (16.7 per cent) and 4,751 cars (13.55 per cent) were involved in road accidents. Lorries and mini-lorries (10.7 per cent), private buses (10.3 per cent), KSRTC buses (2.7 per cent) and jeeps (5 per cent) were involved in accidents. As in the previous years, two-thirds of the accidents were reported during daytime in the State and the remaining one-third during night hours.

Ernakulam district topped in total accident scenario with 5,263 accidents causing the death of 314 persons and injuries to 5,891 persons. Thiruvananthapuram district came second with 3,468 accidents which claimed the lives of 219 persons and injuries to 3,539 persons. Thrissur district with 3,396 accidents, which claimed the lives of 235 persons, and injuries to 4,084 persons came in third spot. The three districts, Kozhikode, Kottayam and Kollam, accounted for 2,300 to 2,500 accidents with nearly higher proportion of casualties.

In Kerala, there has been a steep increase in vehicle population during the last four years. From 19.1 lakh motor vehicles in 2000, the number of vehicles has reached a staggering figure of 25 lakhs in 2003. Of the 25-lakh-vehicle population, more than 56 per cent form two-wheelers. On an average, 500 scooter/motor cycles are added to the fleet every day. An analysis of the road traffic accidents in the State has revealed that the number of accidents is pegged at 38,500 mark during the last three years. The number of persons injured in the State is 4,69,500 while the number of deaths reported due to road accidents has remained more or less around 2,700.

As per the recent statistics released by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, nearly 85,000 people died in road accidents in the country last year. About one-third of the fatalities occurred on National Highways and another one-third on State Highways.

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