Odisha, which had consistently failed to curb road accident fatalities despite Supreme Court-appointed committee’s regular instructions on the matter, reported first negative growth in accidental deaths.
“There has been a decline in accidents and fatalities in the first two months of this year. January and February have always been months of higher accidents. The decline is by 15.34% in accidents and 10.33% in fatalities during two months of January and February, 2022, compared to the same period of previous year,” said State Commerce and Transport Secretary Bishnupada Sethi.
Mr. Sethi said, “the negative growth in accidents and fatalities has been achieved for the first time due to strict enforcement of road safety norms across the State.”
The State recorded 961 road accidents resulting in 456 deaths during January 2022 whereas 1,104 accidents and 492 deaths were registered during the month in the previous year. Accidents were down by 12.95% while deaths dropped by 7.32% in January.
As far as February is concerned, 1,027 accidents and 466 deaths occurred in February 2021. This year in January, number of accidents came down to 843 while deaths fell to 403 representing negative growth rate of 17.92% and 13.52% respectively.
Despite the mandate to decrease road accident deaths gradually by 50% in six years between 2014 and 2020, Odisha had fared in the opposite direction recording increase in fatalities by about 7.24% during 2021 compared to 2020.
A Supreme Court committee had asked the Odisha government to reduce fatalities in road accidents by 50% by 2020 taking 2014 as base. On the contrary, there has been steady increase in number of fatalities due to road accidents from 3,931 (year 2014) to 5,081 (year 2021) — an increase of about 29%.
Only during COVID-19 period when restrictions were imposed on movement of vehicles, accidental deaths had come down.
On Saturday night, both Odisha Police and Transport Department had conducted a joint drive against drunken driving. More than 3,000 vehicles were checked. As many as 391 cases of drunken driving instances were detected. Enforcement agencies arrested 344 drivers and detained 364 vehicles detained. As many as 190 licences were suspended. A highest of 63 drivers were arrested in Sambalpur.
