As road accidents have become a major cause of death (with 15,409 fatalities in 2010), the accident compensation commitment of the State transport undertakings has gone up to Rs.123 crore in 2010-11, Transport Minister V. Senthil Balaji said on Thursday.
Moving the demands for grants for his department, Mr. Balaji said the government was taking a slew of measures to reduce the number of accidents. There was a steep rise in road accidents due to rapid urbanisation and exponential growth of vehicles. In 2010, there were 64,996 accidents, including 14,241 fatal ones. The number of fatalities was 15,409, a 12.10 per cent increase compared to 2009. In 2011 (upto March), 3,518 were fatal accidents out of the 16,751 accidents and the number of fatalities was 3,785.
Action was being taken to prevent accidents by improving roads, signage and traffic movement in accident-prone areas. Special incentive and rewards are given to drivers with accident free record for over 10 years and the State transport undertakings are uniformly adopting tough stand to dismiss erring drivers who caused fatal accidents, Mr. Balaji said.
The vehicle population in the State increased by 12.37 per cent in 2010-11 compared to the previous year with 1.36 crore vehicles, including 1.12 crore two-wheelers. The accident compensation commitment for the State transport undertakings was Rs.16.03 crore in 1990-91 which has increased to Rs.123.14 crore twenty years later.
In order to reduce the expenditure on account of accident claim compensation and to settle the claims early, the State transport undertakings are settling the claims through Lok Adalat. In 2010-11, 289 cases were settled through Lok Adalat, the Minister said.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) floor leader A. Soundararajan asked the government to regulate omnibus service that ate into the revenue of State transport undertakings and urged for early disbursal of accident claim compensation to victims.
