Bhubaneswar: With the implementation of Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act-2019, the deaths in road mishaps in the state have been reduced by 15 per cent in September and October.
This was revealed at the State Road Safety Council meeting held under the chairmanship of Transport and Commerce Minister Padmanabha Behera at Lok Seva Bhawan here, Wednesday.
The state government has implemented the new MV Act September 1 with strong enforcement drives. Later, the enforcement was relaxed for three months twice as several RTOs in the state witnessed heavy rush on account of document preparation. Due to the strong enforcement of the Act, the road mishap deaths have been reduced by 11 per cent in the month of September and 19 per cent in October, as compared to the death cases reported in the corresponding months in 2018.
State’s road accident deaths have recorded a growth of 7.6 per cent by the end of September and 4.8 per cent till October in comparison with last year.
As many as 4,270 people were killed in road mishaps in between January and October 2018 while the figure has been increased to 4,476 in the same period this year. It means the fatalities have been increased by 4.82 per cent.
The deaths in 18 districts have been increased while it saw a decline in 11 districts and remained constant in one district – Puri. Sundargarh registered 343 deaths and topped the state, followed by Ganjam (315) and Khurda (296).
The report made an observation that fatalities have grown at a high rate in districts like Boudh (66%), Rayagada (31%), Sonepur (35%), Kandhamal (32%), Mayurbhanj (30 %) and Malkangiri (27%), where the vehicle population are comparatively less.
In road safety offences, maximum drunken driving detection has been reported in Phulbani, whereas Ganjam topped in overspeeding and using mobile while driving. Maximum cases of riding without helmet were detected in Chandikhol, which is followed by Gajapati.
The police have arrested about 8,000 drunken drivers during September and November while 99,700 challans have been issued to motorists for violating the traffic norms during the period, said Transport secretary G Srinivas.
Raising concern over the serious statistics, the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety has directed the state to reduce fatalities by 20 per cent by 2020.
“It was observed that most deaths occur due to non-availability of medical treatment during the golden hour. So, we have facilitiated free treatment of road accident victims at select private hospitals in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack within 48 hours of the mishap,” Behera said.
For this, the Health and Family Welfare department has been given Rs 4 crore from the road safety fund. Besides, the H&FW department has initiated steps to open trauma care centres in every district, he said.
