Sunday, January 18, 2015

Fazilka's 14 accident black spots claim a life every 5th day

CHANDIGARH: There is an urgent need to tackle 14 accident black spots in Fazilka district, which claim a life every fifth day. According to "Road Safety Report And Action Plan 2015" for Fazilka, prepared as part of the ongoing Road Safety Week, there are about 400 accident black spots in Punjab, and 14 fall in Fazilka district.

An accident black spot is a place where road traffic accidents have historically been concentrated. Driver visibility, road signage and marking, faulty intersection design are the key reason for the accidents at these locations.

On an average, five to six people die in road accidents in Fazilka district every month. The past three year trend is such that more road accidents and deaths happen in the months of May, June, November and December as compared to other months of the year, says the document prepared by Graduates Welfare Association Fazilka.

As per the Punjab traffic police, Fazilka has 14 accident prone areas.

A majority of them are on the national and state highways. In post-crash scenario, the entire district has only three primary trauma care centres and three community health centres. The nearest referral secondary trauma care centre is at Faridkot. 108 Ambulance Service is very popular and showed significant impact in post-accident care.

In 2014, 108 ambulance service provided relief in 528 cases, out of which 510 were taken to the nearest hospital and in 18 cases, basic first aid was given, Out of 528 cases, 633 road accident victims (613 hospital and 20 with basic first aid) were provided relief, says the report.

Nearly 3.7% of Punjab's total population lives in district Fazilka. Road fatalities wise it contribute 1 to 1.5% in the total state's accident fatalities. Fazilka district has 1787 km of road network, which includes 113km of National Highway (NH-7) and 247km of State Highways. 80-85% of the accident took place on this core network of National and State Highways, it adds.

There are about 101 types of offences prescribed in motor vehicle act 1988 and rules 1989, four major types of moving violations have serious direct impact on road safety mainly 'drink and drive' and 'over speeding', District police has booked almost 0.1% percentages of vehicles under these categories. This makes overall  traffic enforcement ineffective, points out the report.

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