820 lose lives in road mishaps this year :

1. In spite of a marginal decrease in road accidents during the current year, 820 persons lost their lives in 2,363 accidents in the first 10 months of 2019 (till October) in Himachal Pradesh while 4,068 persons sustained injuries.

2. Shimla district was the most prone to accidents with 422 accidents claiming 131 lives while Kangra witnessed 404 accidents followed by Mandi with 300 and Solan with 283 while the minimum number of eight accidents were reported from Lahaul and Spiti district. Human errors account to for over 93 per cent of total accidents in the state while only 4.86 per cent accidents occur due to bad roads.

3. Shimla has a tough topography and a large number of accidents in the district are due to skidding of vehicles as roads are covered under the snow during the winter season which was longer this year and areas like Rohru, Chopal, Narkanda and Kufri-Fagu stretch, where the snow makes the roads slippery, results in difficulties in vehicular movement.

4. The initiatives taken by the police, including e-challaning for drunken driving, overspeeding, rash and negligent driving, overloading, parking, installation of crash barriers and procuring of alcohol sensors to rein in erring drivers, have worked and a declining trend is being witnessed.

5. On an average, 1,180 persons die every year in 3,090 accidents while around 5,480 persons sustain injuries and as injuries in a large number of accident cases are of a serious nature, these result in permanent disability. Around 34 per cent of total accidents occur on national highways, 19 per cent on state highways and 47 in village roads of the state, indicating that better roads alone were not adequate to prevent accidents.

6. The issue of road safety comes to the fore whenever a major accident occurs as the number of casualties and seriously injured persons is very high.

7. As per the data compiled by the Road Accident Data Management System for the past three years ending on June 2019, maximum accidents are attributed to overspeeding followed by dangerous and negligent driving, overtaking, bad roads, drugs and alcohol abuse and other reasons, including adverse weather conditions and mechanical faults.

8. In hilly roads, curves are designed for speed not exceeding 45 km per hour on national highways and 25 km per hour for village roads. Negotiating a curve at a speed of 70-80 often results in accidents and therefore in majority of cases, the vehicles roll down the roads.

Initiatives resulting in lesser casualties :

The initiatives taken by the police, including e-challaning for drunken driving, overspeeding, rash and negligent driving, overloading, parking, installation of crash barriers and procuring of alcohol sensors to rein in erring drivers, have worked and a declining trend is being witnessed as far as the number of casualties is concerned.