Rajasthan: These minor oversights cause death of 2,000 people in road accidents annually

Jaipur: Road accidents are causing 10,000 deaths in Rajasthan per year, out of which 4,000 deaths happen due to drivers not following road safety  norms properly. In the investigation data of road accidents issued by the Department of Transport and Traffic Police, it has come out that 70 % of the drivers do not use side mirrors and 90% do not even know when high and low beam should be used. A lack of Information is costing people their lives.

People while driving make several mistakes like overtaking from the wrong direction, not using low-high beam and side mirrors, exceeding the speed limit, not wearing seatbelts, drinking and driving and these are the major reasons for road accidents.

According to the last year’s report, 60 % of people were overtaking from the wrong direction while driving. 90 % of people were not using high-low beam at night and up to 65 % of people don’t use indicators while driving. It has also come out that if people start to follow these rules, lives of nearly 2 thousand people can be saved every year.

If this report is any indication, our traffic sense in using some of the road safety rules is low. Following are the percentage of people who do not follow these rules.

• 65% of people don’t use Indication-Deeper
• 90% of people don’t use Low-high beam
• 60% of overtakes from the wrong direction
• 70% of people use mobile while driving.
• 50% don’t use Horn while driving
• 70% don’t look into the side mirror
• 40% of people Drink and drive
• 60% of people exceed the speed limit.

As per statistics, after 10 years of creating awareness among people, there has been a reduction in road accidents compared to previous three years. The number of causalities has been reportedly lower. In 2016, there has been a reduction of 1005 deaths whereas, in the year 2017, 965 fewer deaths have been reported.

• In the year 2015, 10510 deaths have been reported out of 24072 road mishaps.
• In the year 2016, 10465 deaths have been reported out of 23066 road mishaps.
• In the year 2017, 10444 deaths have been reported out of 22111 road mishaps.

The government aims to reduce the number of accidents per year. Several steps have been taken by the government to improve the situation. Camps, workshops, sessions, rally on road safety rules have been conducted in the past to create awareness among people, said Yunus Khan, Transport Minister.