Killer mission: Pune roads join highways

PUNE, Jan 6: Even as the road safety week is being observed, Puneites would shudder from the fact that the city roads have claimed more l...

PUNE, Jan 6: Even as the road safety week is being observed, Puneites would shudder from the fact that the city roads have claimed more lives than the highways in 1998. The highways, which have earned the tag of killer roads, have been just little dangerous compared to the internal city roads. The mishap figures from January to November last year speak for themselves: The Mumbai-Pune highway stretch witnessed 53 mishaps, 20 mishaps occurred on Pune-Satara highway, 19 on the Pune-Solapur highway, 12 on the Pune-Ahmednagar highway and eight mishaps took place on the Pune-Nashik highway. In short, the highways collectively testified for just over 100 mishaps.

In contrast, the safety lid long enjoyed by the city roads has been blown up. The combined figure of mishaps on various city roads has been put at 192 between January and November.

Compared to the number of fatal mishaps in 1997, the mishaps increased considerably in 1998. According to the figures gleaned from the traffic police, the number of fatal mishaps until November last year itself has equalled the total number of mishaps during the entire 1997.

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A total of 335 persons lost their lives in 2393 mishaps between January and November last year. 302 mishaps were fatal ones. The traffic branch is still in the process of compiling the details regarding the number of mishaps that occurred last month. At least 30 fatal mishaps were recorded in December.

Between January and November last year, 320 persons became victims in different road mishaps.

A high number of serious mishaps which resulted in serious injuries occurred last year. While in 1997, the number of serious mishaps were 376 and the number of injured was 457, as many as 351 persons were injured seriously in 284 mishaps between January and November in 1998. A total of 1729 persons received minor injuries in 1449 minor mishaps that were registered till November and an additional 147 minor mishaps were recorded in December.

One of the disturbing features is that scooter and motorcycle riders met with the highest number of mishaps. The number of casualties involving motorcycle riders was 46 followed by 36 scooterists. Another shocking aspect was that 98 pedestrians had lost their lives. The number of bicycle riders in fatal accidents was 47. In the mishaps involving trucks, cars, jeeps, private buses and other four wheelers, 30 persons lost their lives. At least 17 persons lost their lives in three-seater autorickshaw mishaps and another seven were killed in six-seater autorickshaw mishaps.

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Increasing number of vehicles with each passing day, lack of traffic discipline and road safety awareness, coupled with encroachments and bad condition of the roads have been cited as the main reasons for the soaring mishaps. On the average 30 mishaps occurred every month last year.

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