Kolkata: With marginal decline, deaths due to road accidents fall to 267 in 2019

There was a drop in the number of deaths in road accidents in Kolkata in 2019 when compared to 2018, data released by traffic police here showed on Thursday. Two hundred and sixty seven people died in 260 accidents in 2019, while 294 deaths had occurred in 283 accidents a year before that, the data showed.

The report, termed "accident analysis", also showed there were 1,804 non-fatal accidents in 2019, resulting in injuries to 2,012 people, and 2,162 injuries in 1,961 such cases in 2018.

According to the data, the number of bikers dead in road accidents fell significantly from 82 in 2018 to 58 last year. There were 50 fatal accidents in 2018 involving two-wheelers without helmet, the same was 20 last year.

The number of bikers who died despite wearing helmets in 2018 was 32 and the same in 2019 was 38, the data showed.

Late-night accidents (8pm-6am) also witnessed a sharp fall in 2019. While in 2018, it was 110, there were 87 deaths reported in 2019.

The data also revealed that in 2018, 146 pedestrians died due to accidents, and the number was 151 in 2019.

There was, however, a sharp rise in accidents involving buses and auto-rickshaws.

Buses were involved in 97 fatal accidents in 2019, which was 85 in 2018, the data said adding that autos were involved in 10 fatal accidents last year against seven the previous year.

Buses were involved in a total of 497 accidents in 2019, compared to 470 in 2018.

Cars were involved in 458 accidents last year, compared to 511 in 2018 while auto-rickshaws saw a rise from 98 accidents in 2018 to 128 in 2019, the data revealed.

Stating that the Kolkata Traffic Police have already set their goals for 2020, Joint CP (traffic) Santosh Pandey said: "The issuance of challans against unnecessary honking increased to 1,00,400 in 2019 from 35,119 a year ago. Such special drives will continue."

Pandey said the force was aiming to bring down the number of bus accidents.

"For this, we will begin drawing up new safety awareness drives and training of drivers. In addition, we have also located 22 spots in the city under 12 traffic guards like EM Bypass and the Basanti Highway where we are carrying out in-depth analysis of each accident," Pandey said.

"The decreasing trend in road accident cases in the city reflects on the success of #SafeDriveSaveLive campaign. Regular naka checking against