Under the vision of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann for road safety, Punjab has witnessed a decline of 0.24 per cent in road accident fatalities during the year 2022, in comparison to the previous year 2021, said Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav here on Friday. In 2022, Punjab had registered 4,578 road accident fatalities.
This significant decline in road fatalities in the state is against the countrywide trend, which has witnessed an increase of 9.4 per cent in road fatalities in 2022, resulting in a total of 1,68,491 road accident fatalities in India. DGP Gaurav Yadav, while launching the Annual Report on Punjab Road Crashes and Traffic-2022, said that this declining trend is likely to be accelerated with the launch of the first-of-its-kind Sadak Surkhiya Force (SSF), a special police team dedicated towards road safety and effectively chasing criminals.
“The SSF— a brainchild of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, is expected to hit the roads soon, which will not only help in saving precious lives by reducing mishaps but will also streamline the traffic movement in the state,” he said. The DGP, while expressing his appreciation for the hard work put in by the teams of Punjab Police, Punjab Road Safety and Traffic Research Centre, urged the public to follow road safety rules and regulations to make the roads of Punjab safer.
Divulging more details, ADGP Traffic AS Rai said that this Annual Report on Punjab Road Crashes and Traffic-2022 is an initiative taken by the Punjab Police and Punjab Road Safety and Traffic Research Centre. It comprises an in-depth analysis of road accidents, traffic violations, and road safety measures in Punjab, he added.
He said that the report is expected to be a valuable resource for traffic and law enforcement personnel to understand and address traffic-related issues in the state, besides, it will also serve as an important reference material for scholars and academicians working in the field of road safety. Sharing key findings of the report, Director of Punjab Road Safety and Traffic Research Centre Dr Navdeep Asija said that in the year 2022, a total of 5,55,429 Motor vehicles were registered in Punjab accounting for an annual increasing growth rate of 7.44%.
The total cumulative registered vehicles in Punjab till August 2023 was 1.33 Crore vehicles (1,32,87,350), he added. He said that a decline in road fatalities was observed in February, July, September, October, November and December, whilst an increase in road accident fatalities in all the other months was observed as compared with the previous year 2021.
Over Speeding and Animals remained a leading cause of road accident deaths in Punjab, he said, while adding that in the year 2022, a total of 2085 people died in road accidents due to over speeding followed by 421 due to the involvement of animals.
Meanwhile, a maximum number of road accident fatalities, accounting for 26 per cent of the total accident fatalities in the state were reported between 6pm to 9pm in 2022, while, at least 75 per cent of the road accident fatalities occurred in rural areas of the State. As per the socio-economic cost analysis, in Punjab, Road accidents accounted for a loss of Rs 21,517 crores in 2022.