The lack of awareness and irresponsible behaviour while driving or riding on Indian roads have led to an alarming increase in accidents. While it has become a major concern for people in the entire country, our national capital New Delhi is, unfortunately, leading the list as the most accident-prone city. Studies have revealed that major accidents happen predominantly in larger metropolitan cities.
With New Delhi leading the list, other cities trailing the national capital are Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. While New Delhi has an accident rate of 20.3 per cent, Mumbai comes close to the second position with an accident rate of 18.8 per cent. It is interesting to note that Delhi has a car density of 108 cars per km, which is almost five times less than the car density of Mumbai. The least accident-prone metropolitan city is Bengaluru, which is often mocked for its long-lasting traffic jams.
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A detailed analysis reveals that the Noida Sector 12 in the national capital region is the most accident-prone area, where almost 9 per cent of the accidents happen in the NCR. The other prominent areas which are prone to accidents in the NCR are Gurugram Sector 17, Gurugram Sector 45, Bharat Nagar and Sultanpuri. On the other hand, almost 5 per cent of Mumbai’s accidents happen in Ghatkopar West, which is the highest in the commercial capital of India. Other accident-prone areas in Mumbai are Nerul, Mira Road, Thane West and Kandivali West.
Both Hyderabad and Chennai have shown an accident rate of 18.5 per cent. In Hyderabad, most of the accidents happen in suburbs like Boddupal, Kothagudda, AS Rao Nagar and Nizapet, though the highest accident-prone area in the city is Madhapur. In Chennai, rash driving behaviour has led to an increase in the instances of accidents, particularly in areas of Ambattur, Guindy and Poonamallee, all of which are industrial belts. Bengaluru has the least accident rate of 16 per cent among metropolitan cities, despite the stressful long traffic jams in the city. The 50 km stretch between Bannerghatta and Hoodi faces the most number of accidents in Bengaluru, which is often referred to as the ‘Silicon Valley of India’.
Gadkari blames bad roads
Apart from the common reasons like irresponsible driving behaviour such as rash driving, over-speeding, talking on the phone while driving and driving on the wrong side, there is a new reason behind accidents. Recently, stray animals obstructing the roads have led to an increase in accidents, most of which happen due to dogs and cows.
The Union Minister also blames the poor design of the roads, poor project reports, driver’s behaviour and enforcement issues for road crashes and fatalities in India. Gadkari said,
People park vehicles on roads..There is a lack of driving sense. There is no respect for traffic rules and no fear of offence. This is because people feel they can easily manage. I don’t want to elaborate more on it as you all know the extent of corruption on the roads.
Gadkari also slammed the automobile companies that have been constantly opposing the proposal of six airbags in cars. The new proposal will save lives according to the Union Government. While announcing the proposal at Parliament Gadkari said that the functional deployment of six airbags in cars could have saved over 13,000 lives in 2020.
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