Traffic police to analyse fatal mishaps

In a bid to curb fatal accidents in the city, the Mumbai traffic police has undertaken an ambitious project to carry out in-depth analysis of every fatal accident that occurs in Mumbai. After classifying and recording the causes of these accidents, appropriate measures will be taken.

Though fatal accidents have declined from 433 last year to 375 this year till September, the statistics state that more than one person is killed every day in road mishaps in the city.

Joint commissioner, traffic police, Milind Bharambe confirmed the development. It has been learnt that the traffic police intend to start the exercise early next year. “We intend to send a traffic policeman on the accident spot to make observations. The idea is to find out one or more causes that led to an accident and then taking the required measures to curb them. The plan is in a nascent stage. Gradually, we intend to extent it to all accidents,” he said.

A crash analysis centre is being made in the traffic police headquarters and the traffic branch is scouting for experts and an NGO that can voluntarily help them in implementing their idea. A deeper look at the fatal accidents in last couple of years shows that Mumbai’s eastern region (Chembur to Mankhurd and Ghatkopar to Mulund east) is the worst prone to accidents with 163 fatal accidents occurring last year and another 149 this year till September. The north region (Goregaon to Dahisar) comes second, with 100 fatal accidents seen last year and 79 this year till September.

Mr Bharambe also said that due to the heavy traffic situation in Mumbai the police has been concentrating more on regulating traffic than enforcing the rules. A senior official, requesting anonymity, said, “The vehicles in Mumbai have increased from around 12 lakh to over 25 lakh but the roads are the same. Secondly, with two shifts, vacant posts, training, weekly offs etc., less than 1,000 traffic policeman are on the roads maintaining the traffic. If the policeman catches one errant motorist for violating a traffic rule, ten others violate the traffic rule and speed away. Hence, we are concentrating more on regulating the traffic.”

According to the senior official, as the fines collected from motorists are meagre and there is no foolproof system to increase punishment for a repeat offence, enforcement does not create the desired deterrent effect. The traffic police is hoping that the new law with stringent punishment for repeat offenders gets implemented soon.