6% decrease in fatal accidents in Kolkata in 2022: Cops
Times of India | 3 January 2023
Kolkata: The city has seen a 6% fall in fatal accidents in 2022 when compared to 2021. The achievement is significant given that 2022 had not witnessed any lockdown unlike the previous two years.
The city witnessed 178 accidents with 185 people killed on the roads of Kolkata in 2022. In 2021, there were 185 accidents that had led to 196 deaths. Another Covid year 2020 had recorded 192 accidents leading to 201 deaths. In 2019 — the last non-pandemic year — the city witnessed 260 accidents leading to 267 deaths.
“The decrease in fatalities in the non-Covid years like 2019 and 2022 is 30.7%,” said DC (Traffic) Sunil Kumar Yadav.
The city has witnessed a decrease in non-fatal cases too. The police stated that yet again the comparison of 2022 should be done with 2019.
“It is that non-fatal accidents have decreased by 21% between 2019 and 2022. In 2022, there were 1,770 accidents, in which 1,729 people were injured. In 2021, there were 2,240 accidents that left 2,004 people injured,” said Yadav.
The police stated that around 40% of all fatal accident victims in 2022 were pedestrians, 25% were two-wheeler riders.
The rest were travelling in other vehicles. “Efforts are on to make pedestrians secure,” said an officer.
Cops have claimed that three specific actions have helped them reduce accidents in the city — 94% compliance of wearing helmets on major roads, 98% speed limit compliance and a 208% jump in drink-driving prosecution.
“Helmet compliance is analysed in 21 important locations by using 66 cameras throughout the day. We have checked 3,64,888 vehicles and found 94% helmet compliance in December 2022. It was 87% in February in 2022,” said Yadav.
“Similarly, the speed compliance was calculated by using digital speed signage on a real time basis. Average speed compliance was found to be 98% across 10 important locations like EM Bypass, Gariahat flyover, Majerhat bridge, Red Road and AJC Bose Road, to name a few. We have also increased drink- driving prosecutions by 208%. In 2022, 26,414 drunk motorists were prosecuted as against 2,513 in 2021, 2,005 in 2020 and 8,571 in 2019,” said Yadav.