‘Speeding, drink driving leading to spike in accidents’

Ranchi:

Speeding

and

drunk driving

have led to a rise in the number of road accidents in

Jharkhand

in the past few days, leading to fatalities, officials said.

On Monday morning, two vehicles, including a scooty, collided in an area under Pundaag police station, resulting in the death of a youth and injury of two others. On November 27, three persons were killed and several others injured in four accidents across different areas of Ranchi district and in one of those mishaps, which took place in Namkum, the driver was drunk. Five days ago, five members of a family, including two women and a child, died when their speeding car fell into a river under Govindpur police station area in Dhanbad district. Last month, three persons were killed and a dozen injured in a single day in separate accidents in Ranchi.

This year between January and October, the state has recorded 3,869 accidents where 2,875 persons died and 2,658 sustained injuries, according to official figures. With 509 mishaps, Ranchi has registered the maximum number of accidents where 350 persons died and 275 sustained injuries.

When asked, joint commissioner (road safety) Ravi Shankar Vidyarthi stated that drunk driving and speeding are the main causes behind such mishaps. “The broad and smooth roads, particularly in the national highways, result in the drivers speeding their vehicles and that leads to such mishaps. Now that winter season is approaching, the foggy weather will further increase the chances of accidents.”

Bundu sub-divisional police officer Ajay Kumar said, “Ever since the Ranchi-Jamshedpur stretch of National Highway-33 has been broadened, vehicles are moving at a high speed, which ranges from 100km/hr to 120km/hour. This is causing frequent mishaps on the highway. We have asked the National Highways Authority of India to put up signs regarding speed limits on the highway.”

Vidyarthi further said that around 35% of the accidents in Jharkhand involve two-wheelers and nearly 88% of the fatalities happen because the riders do not wear helmets.

The National Crime Records Bureau’s 2020 report stated that over 60% of the accidents in the country take place due to speeding and in 44% of those mishaps, there is a two-wheeler involved.

Meanwhile, the state road safety department claimed that the number of black spots -- areas which have witnessed a high number of accidents in the past three years -- went down last year to 72. In 2019, the number was 95.

Of all the black spots in Jharkhand, Govindpur in Dhanbad and Tamar, Lower Bazaar, Khelgoan, Ormanjhi, Ratu, Nagri and Namkum areas in Ranchi are some of the most accident-prone zones.