Take remedial action at accident spots, road ministry directs states and NHAI

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has asked the state governments and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to take remedial measures at accident spots on national highways based on preliminary analysis from police reports rather than waiting for such stretches to be declared as black spots, reported PTI. This directive from MoRTH comes as the process of declaring one stretch on a national highway as a black spot takes time and in between the process more accidents could take place taking precious lives or injuring many.

India is one of the front-row countries in the world with an alarmingly high number of road accidents that take place every year. A large number of these road accidents take place on the national highways across the country, causing lakhs of deaths and critical life-threatening injuries to even more people. According to a study, the number of deaths reported in India due to road accidents in 2018 was 150,785 and it increased to 153,792 in 2021. The number was 1.3 lakh in 2010. The number of deaths has been rising across the country with the growing number of vehicular activity on national highways.

While violation of traffic rules or reckless driving is often termed as the cause of many road accidents, in many cases, faulty road infrastructure too is blamed for such mishaps. In case a stretch on a national highway registers consecutive accidents during a limited timeframe, it is declared as a black spot. Usually, stretches of about 500 metres on national highways where at least five accidents have taken place during three years, resulting in at least 10 fatalities, are designated as accident black spots. Over the last few years, NHAI has identified several black spots on national highway networks across the country and fixed them. However, this is a continuous process and this identification and fixing process continues.

The latest directive from MoRTH comes amid rising incidents of road accidents and efforts to reduce such mishaps, to ensure speedier action to fix issues at accident spots.