30 per cent accidents due to human error,40 per cent mishaps in six cities,380 black spots,says House panel report Every year 4,000-5,000 lives are lost to road accidents in Punjab and the families keep waiting for years for compensation,the report of a three-member committee of Punjab Assembly tabled in the House on Saturday said. The committee comprising legislators Master Mohan Lal,Ajit Singh Mofar and Ujjagar Singh Badali while attributing the deaths to human behaviour,killer spots and negligence of the state transport and police departments,gives credit to the Public Works Department for bringing down the numbers. From 3,622 in 2009,the number of road accident deaths has come down by five per cent to 3,424 in 2010. It will reduce further in 2011 owing to information on road safety rules being disseminated by the PWD officials, it says. Quoting the findings of the Road Safety Department,it says nearly 25 to 30 per cent of accidents are caused by human behaviour. Vehicles lacking seat belts,no reflectors on trolleys,tractors and other goods carriers,no leg guard on bikes,overloading are some of the main factors causing deaths on roads. More than 40 per cent of the fatal accidents take place in cities of Jalandhar,Ludhiana,Patiala,Amritsar,Mohali and Bathinda. There are as many as 380 black spots and most of those who die in the accidents are pedestrians and cyclists,adds the report. Stating that the road safety and police departments should carry out driving behaviour studies and road safety awareness programmes,the report has recommended measures to fight the menace. To begin with,all roads and dividers should have lights and all state and national highways should have signages,it suggests. The state should introduce lessons on road safety in schools and colleges and the Punjab Traffic Police should be empowered on the lines of the Chandigarh Traffic police to take action,it adds. Placing a part of the blame on marriage palaces on highways,it says there should be a check on traffic jams outside such places and on people driving after drinking in marriage functions. There should be tighter vigil on people talking on mobile phones while driving. It says that the engineering or diploma colleges should take the responsibility of holding written tests for driving. The report has also made an observation on delay in giving compensation to families of victims. The families wait for years for compensation that compounds their sorrow. It should be made time-bound, it says. A new hope,says the report,is introduction of Road Safety Database Management System,which will digitise data on road accidents. The PWD will upload all details on roads in the system while the police department will feed details of all the accidents. Information will travel from the third level - police stations - as weekly,monthly reports on accidents to the second level - district superintendent of police - who will then upload the district level data into the system. Once operational,the database can be viewed on www.punjabroadsafety.org ,the report said. 8 lakh challans issued by adalats/police in 2010 The report on road accidents submitted by three-member Assembly committee says in the year 2010 courts issued over 4.9 lakh challans in Punjab while challans paid in cash to police totalled to 3.1 lakh. Of these,5.9 lakh challans were disposed off by the courts. In monetary terms,the amount collected from both the type of challans totalled to over Rs 18.6 crore. In the period from January 2011 to August 2011,courts issued 3.2 lakh challans. More than 2.5 lakh challans were disposed off by courts and the amount collected so far (till August 2011) is Rs 10.7 crore.
