12 people die in road accidents in Punjab daily

Chandigarh: At least 12 people die daily in road accidents in Punjab, a book on road safety scenario of te state has revealed.

The book, ‘Report on Punjab Road Accidents and Traffic-2017’ which has been compiled by Punjab additional DGP (ADGP) Traffic Sharad Satya Chauhan and Punjab traffic adviser Navdeep Asija, was released by Punjab director general of police (DGP) Suresh Arora on Friday.

Chauhan said last year, 12 people lost their lives every day in road accidents in the state.

“The sharpest decline of 12.1 per cent road fatalities observed in the state last year against the rising trend of previous years. This was the sharpest yearly decline achieved by Punjab in this decade,” he pointed out.

He said that though Punjab had only around 2.25 per cent population of the country, its fatality rate in road accidents was up to 3.5 per cent of the road accident deaths in India.

“About 60-67 per cent of the total road fatalities occurred on national and state highways, both comprising 5.4 per cent of the total road length in Punjab. City-wise, Ludhiana, Patiala, Amritsar, Bathinda, Mohali, and Jalandhar contributed 15 per cent deaths to the total road fatalities in the state,” Chauhan said.

He said the number of fatalities per million population of Punjab was 148, against the national average of 119.

Chauhan pointed out that, as per the report, over-speeding was the leading cause of deaths.

“In 2017, 2,363 people died in road accidents due to over-speeding,” he said. Age-wise, 75 per cent of the people involved in various fatal road accidents, were in the age group of 18 to 45 years. Road accident is one of the leading causes of death of young people in Punjab, he added.

The book said motor vehicles are growing at 9-10 per cent rate in Punjab and last year, on an average daily, 300 new cars and 1,700 two-wheelers were registered in the state.

The total cumulative registered vehicle in Punjab till March 2017 were 98,59,742.

[source_without_link]IANS[/source_without_link]