'Accident fatalities much higher than Covid-19 deaths in Odisha'

BHUBANESWAR: Alarmed by nearly 36% rise in fatalities in road accidents in the state between 2014 and 2019, chairman of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety, Justice (retired) Abhay Manohar Sapre has decided to visit Odisha in the next few weeks to review the government’s preparedness to check the mishaps. This will be the chairman’s maiden visit to the state against the backdrop of the alarming rise in road accidents and fatalities.
“The chairman told us that he would soon visit the state to review the road safety measures and compliance with his orders.He may visit the vulnerable districts like Ganjam, Sundargarh, Khurda, Cuttack, Keonjhar, Jajpur, Mayurbhanj and Balasore that witnessed a high rate of accident fatalities,” commerce and transport secretary Madhu Sudan Padhi told TOI.
Ahead of Sapre’s visit, police and regional transport officers (RTOs) have been asked to intensify enforcement drives and suspended the driving licence (DL) of the offenders. Only 367 DLs were suspended between January and September this year, though police and RTOs together caught 2.65 lakh persons without helmets during the period.
Last week, chief secretary Asit Tripathy held a video conference with district collectors and SPs and drew their attention to the apex court committees displeasure over 36% increase in accident deaths in the state between 2014 and 2019.
The chief secretary observed that the deaths in road accidents this year so far is much higher than the Covid-19 deaths. Expressing displeasure that the accident deaths took place despite the restrictions on movement of vehicles during the lockdown and shutdown, the chief secretary asked the authorities concerned to bring visible improvement in the road safety scenario within two months, another transport official said.
While Covid-19 has so far claimed lives of 1,739 persons in the state, altogether 2,401 persons have already died in road crashes between January and July this year, official statistics said.
The transport department said the deaths due to road accidents decreased by 43.5% in four months of lockdown from April till July. While 1,048 fatalities were reported between April and July 2020, the casualty figure had stood at 1,853 during the corresponding period in 2019. The department said deaths due to road accidents dropped by 30% between January and July this year as compared to the corresponding period in 2019.