Despite fall in number of mishaps, death rises

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
21 Feb 2011

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite a decline in the number of accidents, the number of deaths in road accidents has shown an increase during the year 2010.

According to the figures available with the Police Department, while the number of accidents in 2010 came down by 387 compared to 2009, the number of deaths had gone up by 91.

A total of 3,922 persons lost their lives in 35,046 accidents in the State during 2010, whereas the corresponding figures for 2009 were 3,831 and 35,433.

‘’During 2010 there were many road accidents with mass causalities and hence the contradictory trend in the number of accidents and number of deaths,’’ IG Traffic S Gopinath said.

Over the past many years, the number of deaths in road accidents had been showing an upward trend. But, in 2009, the number of deaths showed a decline by 70 compared to 2008.

While the number of deaths in 2008 was 3,901 it came down to 3,831 in 2009.

The decline in the number of deaths was indeed a relief to traffic planners.

However, the number of deaths has once again

started showing the upward trend in 2010 thereby proving that the traffic awareness efforts initiated by government agencies and various NGOs are yet to bear fruit.

The Police Department has also pointed out that more than half of the road accident victims are in the age group of 20 to 55 and many are bread- winners of their families.

Hence, the increasing number of deaths in road accidents is becoming a social issue as well.

It is a matter of relief that the number of accidents as well as the number of injured have been showing a declining trend over these years.

According to the police, the major reasons for the increase in death rate are wrong, careless and rash driving habits, bad driving habits of heavy vehicle

drivers and bad condition of roads.

The increasing number of accident deaths is also attributed to the enormous increase in the number of vehicles.

However, compared to the increasing number of vehicles, the decline in the number of accidents is a positive sign, police sources said.