Ahmedabad, November 16, 2020 (Yes Punjab News)
International Road Federation (IRF) , a Geneva based global body working for safer roads world-wide has expressed grave concern at the increased number of road accident deaths during the year 2019 in the country including the state of Gujarat, which recorded Thirteenth highest number of road deaths in the country
As per latest National Road Accident data released by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) for the year 2019 , road accidents killed over 1.51 lakh people in 2019 crashes, . The numbers of crashes left 4.51 lakh injured in the country.
In the state of Gujarat 7390 people lost their lives in 17,046 road accidents in the year 2019 and 9,362 people got injured .Gujarat ranked 14th in the country with severity of 43.4 per cent . Total number of fatal road accidents in the state were 6726 and ranked 9th .
In main Ahmedabad city alone had 1375 road accidents 439 people losing life and ranked 12th in the country.
As per MoRTH report Surat witnessed 846 Road accidents with 257 persons killed and ranked 16th in the country during the year 2019 .
Rajkot another Gujarat city witnessed 575 road accidents during the year 2019 with 170 people loosing life and 437 people injured .it ranked 39th in the country in number of road accidents.
“Despite small decline in number of road accidents in the state a lot needs to be done to curb the fatal road accidents ” said Mr K K Kapila, President Emeritus, International Road Federation (IRF)
“India accounts for about 12 % of the global road accident fatalities. Several initiatives for improving road safety such as the amendment in the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA), improvements in roads from the engineering perspective, road safety audits at all stages of road construction beginning right from the planning stage besides identification and remedy of black spots in a sustained systematic manner on war footing can help bring down fatal road accidents in the country” said Mr. K K Kapila, President emeritus, International Road Federation (IRF) .
“India is signatory to the United Nation’s Decade of Action plan for Road Safety across the world which aims to reduce road fatalities by 50% by the year 2020. But the target seems nowhere near “said Mr Kapila .
“Strict enforcement of the new Motor vehicle Act wearing of helmet and seat belts, improvement in road engineering, clearing of black spots can help in reduction of fatal road accidents in the state” Mr Kapila said.
