The district has witnessed a 6.39% dip in road accidents in 2019 compared to 2018. Increased enforcement and sustained awareness campaigns carried out by the Cuddalore district police have started yielding results.
According to statistics available with the Cuddalore police, the number of fatal accidents decreased from from 415 in 2018 to 403 in 2019. The number of non-fatal accidents declined from 3,048 in 2018 to 2,421 in 2019. The police prepared a database of accidents in the district over the last three years, including information on accident-prone stretches, the nature of accidents and the time they occurred.
The police identified 71 ‘black spots’ across the district. A study conducted by the traffic police revealed that the Cuddalore-Salem National Highway, Cuddalore to Panruti Road and the stretch of the East Coast Road from Reddichavadi to Chidambaram were the most accident-prone stretches in the district.
Poor road engineering
Majority of the accidents took place either due to lack of awareness or poor road engineering at road intersections and highways.
The police installed solar blinkers and high frequency LEDs in strategic areas along national highways to avoid road mishaps and to strengthen the road signalling system.
“Road safety awareness campaigns, cracking down on usage of cell phones while driving and enforcing helmet rule helped reduce road accidents. The police adopted a zero-tolerance approach towards towards traffic violations. The number of cases booked against talking on mobile phones while driving and not wearing a helmet registered an increase of 100% when compared with the previous year,” Superintendent of Police M. Sree Abhinav said.
Police booked as many as 4,19,968 cases under the Motor Vehicle Act in 2019 as against 2,37,298 cases in 2018. Since 2018, the compound fee collected in the form of fines for various traffic violations has increased. While ₹3.53 crore was collected in 2018, the figure rose to ₹4.19 crore in 2019.
Remedial measures
The police identified black spots across the district and suggested necessary remedial measures in an effort to curb accidents.
Tenders have been floated to install blinkers at a cost of ₹43 lakh across the district. Cuddalore is the only district to have a separate Road Safety Awareness team and the members visited all educational institutions creating awareness among students. All these measures contributed to making roads safer, Mr. Abhinav added.
