Road accidents, fatalities reduced by 30% in this Indian city due to challans

Road accidents and fatalities in Shimla district have gone down by 30 per cent in the last five years thanks to challans for road traffic violation that have acted as a deterrent, police officials told PTI. A total of 167 people were killed in 354 accidents in the district in 2022, which is a clear a dip from 245 deaths in 526 accidents in 2018.

The number of challans issued increased by 30.5 percent during the period as per the data procured from the police department. Besides effective challaning, others factors that helped bring down accidents include predictive policing, law enforcement and deployment of police personnel based on analyses of Data of Road Accident Data Management System, intelligent traffic management system and monitoring through CCTV cameras.

The city is focusing on effective challaning for drunken driving, over speeding and talking on mobile challans leading to suspension of driving license of habitual offenders and prepared a road map for reasons leading to an increase in accidents. These include heavy rush during apple season and skidding of vehicles in snow bound areas, and remedial measures were taken in advance.

In 2022, the highest number of 1,83,612 challans were issued, out of which drunken driving (3,448), using mobile while driving (5159) and over speeding (586) accounted for five percent of the total challans. The number of accidents reduced to 354 last year, the lowest in last 10 years whereas fatalities reduced from 189 in 2021 to 167 in 2022.

The offenders were challaned under MV Act for offences leading to an accident for ignoring safety measures meant to reduce injury, to dissuade them from repeating the mistake.

Out of these, maximum number of accidents were witnessed on link roads followed by state highways, national highways and major district roads and motor cars were involved in about 50 percent of accidents.

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