Fatal accidents lesser in Madurai comparing last two years

MADURAI: The total number of deaths caused by road accidents in the city in 2019 is considerably lower compared to the last two years, shows data obtained from the city commissioner office. Sources said that the number of deaths was lesser in most of the months of 2019 compared to the respective months in 2018 and 2017.

According to the data, 158 people died in the city due to road accidents from January 1 to September 30 in 2017, which reduced to 150 in the respective months in 2018, which further had gone down to 140 in the respective months in 2019.

The precautionary and regulatory measures taken by the city police played a key role in the declining trend of the number of fatal accidents. Police sources said, "Whenever a fatal accident occur in a location in the city, we take serious measures to prevent any such accidents from happening at the same location in the future."

'DUI, no helmet cause fatal accidents'

A traffic inspector said that the number of cases registered against the violators has increased. The inspector said that the department is especially focussing on identifying cases of drunken driving and riding without a helmet, as these are the two major factors. The inspector also added that more number of barricades have been placed to control rash driving in the city.

An assistant commissioner of police for traffic said that besides registering cases against violators, the department is ensuring that the violators either pay the penalty or face trial. He said that vehicle inspections are being carried out frequently. "Narrow roads in some places also lead to fatal accidents. Such roads are being identified and informed to the city corporation for road-widening works," he added.

Further, the officer said that spreading awareness among the people also helped in controlling the number of fatal accidents and that a minimum of ten to 20 awareness programmes are being conducted every day in the city. "Creating medians on city roads will certainly reduce the number of fatal accidents. Generally, riders who overtake on roads without medians are vulnerable to such accidents," he added.

Number of deaths due to road accidents