Director General of Police, Punjab, Suresh Arora today released a book titled as "Report on Punjab Road Accidents and Traffic-2017" which gives in detail of road safety scenario in Punjab. Dr Sharad Satya Chauhan ADGP Traffic and Navdeep Asija traffic advisor Punjab took the lead in compiling the details of road accidents and traffic projections in the state for the second consecutive year.Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Punjab Police said the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH) releases such a booklet at the national level annually but Punjab compiles its traffic situation separately to analyze road safety arrangements. He added that the Supreme Court Committee for monitoring road safety has also appreciated this fact.He further informed that this book would be circulated to all Deputy Commissioners/CoP/SSsP to analyze road safety and accident scenario in their respective areas of jurisdiction and take remedial steps to reduce accidents and deaths on road. In addition to this, the copy of the e-book would also be uploaded on the website of the Punjab Police to make it available for the public, students, researchers etc. for use of data at their end.Giving details about this book Dr Sharad Chauhan ADGP Traffic said last year on an average of 12 people lost their lives daily in road accidents in Punjab. "Sharpest decline of 12.1% road fatalities observed in the state last year against the rising trend of previous years. This is the sharpest yearly decline achieved by the state of Punjab in this decade", he added.
Dr Chauhan revealed that 2.25% of the total country’s population of lives in Punjab but its share in the total road accident deaths was varying from 3.3 to 3.5% of road accident deaths of India in the last five years. About 60-67% of the total road fatalities occurred on National and State Highways, both comprises of 5.4% of the total road length in Punjab. City wise five cities of Punjab mainly Ludhiana, Patiala, Shri Amritsar Sahib, Bathinda, Mohali, and Jalandhar alone contributed 15% deaths to the total road fatalities in Punjab, he added.ADGP Traffic said the number of fatalities per million population of Punjab was 148, against the national average of 119. Three districts of Punjab Rupnagar, S.A.S Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib ranked number 1, 2 and 3, respectively where the rate of fatal road accidental deaths was almost double than the state’s average.In the year 2017, out of 22, all 18 districts reported in a decrease in road fatalities except for the district Rupnagar and S.A.S. Nagar, Fazilka and Tarantaran. Continuous decline in the road fatalities was observed in all 12 months of the year 2017, as compared with the previous year 2016, he added.
Dr Chauhan informed that as per the report, over speeding was the leading cause of deaths in Punjab. In the year 2017, a total 2,363 people died in road accidents due to over speeding. A total of 462 people died due to road accidents in three Police Commissionerate jurisdictions, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Amritsar that account for 10.4% in the total share of road accident fatalities in the state. Age wise, 75% of the people involved in various fatal road accidents, were from the age group of 18 to 45. Road accident is one of the leading causes of young people deaths in Punjab, he added.As per the data available, motor vehicles are growing at 9-10% rate in Punjab and last year on an average daily, 300 new cars and 1700 two-wheelers were registered in Punjab. The total cumulative registered vehicle in Punjab till March 2017 were 98,59,742. At the same time in 2017, neighboring state in the plains, Haryana recorded with an increase of 3.5% in road fatalities and Rajasthan with almost negligible change of -0.2%.As per the socio-economic cost analysis, Dr Chauhan informed that Punjab saved Rs. 620 crores due to a reduction in road accidents compared with the previous year based on the socio economic cost calculations devised by the planning commission and Mondel et al.