Speeding major cause of accidents in Gurugram: Police
An analysis by the Gurugram Police revealed that speeding, driving in the wrong lane, and pedestrians suddenly crossing the road are the three major causes of road accidents in Gurugram. Around 70 of the 199 accidents analysed were caused due to speeding. The data also revealed that 572 accidents with 213 casualties have happened so far this year.
Speeding, driving in the wrong lane, and suddenly crossing the road, often by pedestrians, have emerged as three major reasons for road mishaps in Gurgaon, according to an analysis of around 200 accidents by the city police.A comparison of accident figures in the first half of 2016 and 2017 also revealed a slight dip in the number of accidents in 2017.In the first half of 2016, there had been 605 accidents and 218 deaths on Gurgaon?s roads.?For the corresponding period in 2017, there have been 572 accidents with 213 casualties. The number of people seriously injured in accidents during this period stood at 627 last year and is 585 this year.Gurgaon police commissioner, Sandeep Khirwar, said managing traffic and preventing accidents were two key challenges for his department.?New experiments and changes in traffic movement are being carried out to find a viable solution to these problems. Several drives against speeding, unauthorised parking and drink driving have helped in improving the situation,? he said.Of the 199 accidents analysed by the Gurgaon police, 70 were caused due to speeding.Driving on the wrong lane of the road, in opposite direction of traffic, is often seen on city roads, including the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, which is an access-controlled road. According to the data, 22 accidents were caused by driving in the wrong lane and 28 because someone suddenly rushed on to the road.Further, in the sample studied, being negligent or drowsy while driving was found to be the cause of 17 accidents. Fourteen were due to overtaking a vehicle from the left and 10 each due to the vehicle in front applying brakes suddenly and due to vehicles taking a sudden U-turn.Transport experts, however, termed these incidents as crashes and not accidents and held bad road engineering and poor planning responsible for these road mishaps, which they said were preventable.?Most of the roads in Gurgaon are designed for high-speed movement of vehicles at 70 to 80 km per hour. There is also a tendency among planners to not create U-turns while building roads, leading to people driving on the wrong side to reach their destination instead of driving an extra distance to take a turn,? said Amit Bhatt, a transport expert, adding that lack of enforcement of rules was also responsible.According to experts, planning and execution of roads has to be done as per the specific requirements of the city instead of building highways that they said are unnecessary.