Road Traffic Accidents Kill 4,000 people in Delhi

Road traffic accidents in Delhi claim thousands of life.

The poor driving skills of motorist has resulted in over 4,000 people dying in road traffic accidents in the Indian capital in the last three years , said a senior Delhi Police official.

"This city has a road length of around 1,500 sq km and it is difficult to control and coordinate the traffic if the standard of driving is not up to the mark," Qamar Ahmed, joint commissioner, traffic, said.

He also said that about six million traffic rules violations had been registered during the period, and that over 9,000 accidents were recorded in the capital every year.

"There is a lack of road facilities in Delhi and we have identified at least 30 accident-prone areas," he added.

The accident-prone areas include Mathura Road, Rohini, Wazirabad, Mehrauli and national highways number 1, 2 and 8.

"Both inner and outer ring roads are also prone to accidents," he said.

Ahmed said a study conducted by the Delhi Police recently found that 52 percent of the people who died were pedestrians. "People think they cannot meet with accidents and therefore they take the traffic for granted," he said.

"Pedestrians think it is the vehicle driver's duty to see that they are not hit, whereas the drivers feel that the pedestrians should take care of themselves," he added.

He also said the Delhi Police had proposed a plan for construction of subways and footboards for the pedestrians in the city.

"Around seven such plans are being executed and the crossings should be in place in the next seven months".

"We need at least 14 more subways," Ahmed pointed out.

He said the police were taking strict action against rash and negligent drivers.

"We have started sending the details of erring drivers to the transport department for the cancellation of their driving permit," he said adding that in the past five months licenses of 31 Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses and private buses had been cancelled.

He also pointed out that the increasing number of vehicles coming into Delhi from the satellite towns of Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad was worsening the situation.

"Apart from the nearly five million vehicles in Delhi, additional 800,000 vehicles come from the neighboring towns," he said.

Ahmed also said that numerous driving schools had come up in the city and the traffic police had no authority to regulate them or ask them to maintain a certain level of standard.

Source:IANS