Fixing black spots reduced road casualties 28% in 2 years: Report

NEW DELHI: Showing that efforts to fix black spots can help reduce road fatalities, the first-ever comparative analysis of trends from the top 25 black spots in 13 states has shown deaths coming down by over 28% in two years. While the number of such deaths was 3,017 in 2011, it came down to 2,153 in 2013.
Black spots are locations which report abnormally high number of road crashes.The road transport ministry had flagged off identifying black spots on roads for the first time in 2011 and had also pushed for treatment of such zones.
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The 13 states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Kerala, Gujarat, Bihar and West Bengal, together account for 88.4% of the total road crashes in the country. According to the data compiled by the transport research wing of the ministry, the maximum reduction in fatalities at such spots was reported in Tamil Nadu. In absolute numbers, the decline was 385 fatalities between 2011 and 2013.
Madhya Pradesh registered almost 60% reduction in fatalities at such high-risk spots on its roads.
But some other states, including Haryana and West Bengal, reported a minor increase in fatalities. “States where there is no reduction in fatalities are a greater concern for us. The steps taken there are not proving to be adequate. Even in other states, the effort has to achieve zero fatalities at such spots since the agencies are now aware of the causes of crashes and what they need to do to rectify those factors,” a transport ministry official said.
Officials and road safety experts said certain points or stretches have become black spots because of inadequate facilities to road users, bad road design such as blind turns, lack of traffic signals or narrow junctions.
As per a government report, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is responsible for fixing 203 of the 322 identified black spots, has completed short-term measures at 159 spots. It has completed long-term remedial measures at 57 spots and work is in progress at another 125 spots.
“But what we are now observing is that new black spots are being identified, once the old ones are fixed. So, we are going to carry out a detailed study of black spots in five states — UP, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Delhi — to identify the steps that need to be taken,” a ministry official said.