Road accidents see spurt as Delhi slowly unlocks

NEW DELHI: Easing of lockdown rules triggered a spurt in the number of road accidents in the national capital. Delhi saw nearly 150% increase in the number of road accidents in the month of May compared with April.
According to the Delhi Police data, 67 accidents took place during the lockdown in April, while as many as 173 accidents took place in the next 30 days after the lockdown norms were relaxed.

On Wednesday, police detained four youths, including two minors, for mowing down a woman and a man at KN Katju Marg in outer Delhi. Taking advantage of empty roads, the accused were on a joyride in a car and one of them had lost control of the vehicle while driving at a high speed.
DCP (Rohini) PK Mishra said that the car was registered in the name of Tarun Chauhan. “He was also driving the car at the time of the accident. While he was arrested, the others were taken into custody. Legal action would also be taken against them.”
Even though the restriction on the movement of vehicles has been eased, the roads remain empty due to the pandemic. Drivers of private vehicles, which are now plying unchecked, tend to speed presuming that they would escape unnoticed.
“Almost all the road fatalities occurring in May were due to hit-and-run incidents. The drivers were later tracked down and caught,” a police officer said.
According to an estimate by the traffic police, about 30% of the total vehicle volume, which used to be witnessed in the city before the lockdown, is now out on the city’s roads.
Police officers said that speed violations mainly take place on the longer stretches, such as Ring Road, Outer Ring Road or the interstate highways. The period between 3pm and 10pm— when many people step out of their homes to reach markets and buy essentials—sees maximum violations.
“The tendency of drivers to violate the speeding rules increases when they don’t spot an enforcement officer on the road,” said a cop on the condition of anonymity.
To this, a senior police officer said: “We would like to inform such speedsters that the violations are being captured by the cameras and notices under the new MV Act will be issued to them.”
With the amended MV Act coming into effect, 2019 had seen a drastic dip in the number of fatal accidents since February. Drivers were found to be complying more with the road rules due to hefty fine amounts. The novel coronavirus outbreak has kept the number of road accidents low this year so far.