Twenty-six fatalities and injuries to 184 persons in 173 road accidents in the State during the lockdown period from March 25 to April 14 are baffling law enforcers and road safety authorities. The accidents occurred at a time when there were curbs on the entry of vehicles on roads and the police had been present in large numbers to enforce the lockdown to contain COVID-19.
The Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA), which has compiled the figures from the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) records, submitted the accident statistics during the lockdown period to the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety headed by K.S. Radhakrishnan on Thursday. The statistics for the remaining period will be submitted once the lockdown is withdrawn.
92.6% dip in accidents
Compared to the corresponding period (21 days from March 25) last year, there has been a dip in road accidents by 92.6%, fatalities by 91.1% and injuries by 93%. There were 2,352 road accidents in the State from March 25 to April 14 in 2019 with 291 fatalities and 2,614 injuries, according to the KRSA.
“Junctions were not manned and traffic signals were switched off and this might have led to speeding by essential and commercial vehicles and ambulances. There might also be spillover cases from the pre-lockdown period. During the lockdown, accidents should not have taken place. The detailed analysis of the accidents and type of vehicles will be looked into as there was no criss-cross movements at junctions,” Executive Director, Road Safety, KRSA, T. Elangovan, told The Hindu .
The road accidents came down from 11,026 during January-March 2019 to 10,592 in the same period this year. Fatalities came down from 1,262 to 1,047 and injuries from 12,295 to 11,803. The dip in accident rate is 3.9%, fatality rate is 17% and injury rate is 4%.
The KRSA has also submitted these figures to the Supreme Court Committee.
