Deaths by accidents in Odisha increase by 16% from last yr

BHUBANESWAR: Deaths due to road accidents across the state increased by nearly 16% from January to September this year as against the three corresponding quarters in 2020. This was revealed in the latest data shared by the state crime branch with the transport department.
Altogether 3,708 persons have died in road accidents in the first nine months of this year. This figure had stood at 3,197 for the same period in 2020.
This worrisome trend comes close on the heels of chief minister Naveen Patnaik expressing serious concern over the rising number of accident deaths in his valedictory address at the 63rd Senior Police Officers’ Conference here last week.
On Thursday, officers at the state road safety council (SRSC) meeting here chalked out the strategies to prevent accident deaths. “We have urged the regional transport officers, district collectors and superintendents of police to take urgent steps to reduce the accident deaths,” a senior transport official said.
In the SRSC meeting, the officials observed that districts like Jajpur, Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Angul, Dhenkanal, Balasore, Khurda, Cuttack, Ganjam, Koraput and Sambalpur continued to be vulnerable, recording more than 100 fatalities during January to September. Districts like Gajapati, Jagatsinghpur, Boudh, Jharsuguda, Rayagada, Malkangiri and Nuapada reported a growth in fatalities by 30% or more compared to the same period last year.
There has been a steady increase in the number of fatalities from 2014 (3,931 deaths) to 2020 (4,738deaths), a jump of about 21%. This despite the Supreme Court committee on road safety having asked the states to take steps to reduce fatalities by 10% every year from 2015 onwards.
The Supreme Court committee observed that though the violation of helmet law resulted in about 41% deaths, the state government did precious little to address the issue. The committee also expressed displeasure over poor enforcement related to suspension of DLs in 2020 and 2021. Over-speeding contributed to 69% of the accidents, but action against the violators has been lacking, the committee observed.
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