The number of accidents in the city came down last year following various steps taken by the police.
Barricades with radium stickers wrapped around them and traffic cones were placed on vital road stretches on National Highway 66. The number of cases of seizure of cannabis (ganja) went up considerably and more number of persons were booked under the Goonda Act.
Giving an overview of the work done in 2016, City Police Commissioner M. Chandra Sekhar said on Wednesday that the steps to regulate traffic movement had brought down the number of fatal accidents from 163 in 2015 to 135 in 2016. Non-fatal accidents came down from 1,110 to 1,037. The number of persons who were killed and injured last year were 141 and 1,253, respectively. The figures for 2015 were 171 and 1,439, respectively.
Mr. Sekhar attributed the achievements to the proactive measures taken by the police in association with the National Highway Authority of India and the Mangaluru City Corporation. “We will continue our focus on traffic this year too to make our roads safer for motorists,” he said.
The attention this year would be on parking spaces and bus stops. “We want the commuters to catch buses at designated bus stops and stop the practice of stopping buses at places where they are standing,” Mr. Sekhar said.
He said that there was a marked increase in the number of cases registered for possession and sale of cannabis. In 2016, the city police registered 239 cases and seized 109.23 kg of cannabis. The figures for 2015 were 49 cases and seized 16.65 kg of cannabis. Mr. Sekhar said 13 were booked under the Karnataka Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug-Offenders, Gamblers, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Slum-Grabbers Act in 2016 as against three in 2015.
The city police made 1,294 persons, who were suspected of creating problem in city, affirm good conduct in 2016. It had acted against 934 persons in 2015, he said. The number of murders and rapes in 216 were less than those reported in 2015, he added.
