Road accident fatalities post a decline. State records fall of 12.6% for five months of 2022 as compared with 2019 figures

Good road connectivity, improved response time of ambulances, and availability of quality medical care have contributed to the decline in accident fatalities.FILE PHOTOTHULASI KAKKAT

John L. Paul KOCHI

There has been a noticeable decline of 12.6% in road accident fatalities during the January-May 2022 period in Kerala as compared with the same period in 2019.

The number of fatalities during the period fell from 2,127 in 2019 to 1,859 in 2022. “Considering the trend during the first five months, we hope that the fatality rate in the entire 2022 can be reduced by at least 10%,” says T. Elangovan, Executive Director of Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA).

Reasons cited

He attributes the high telephone and road connectivity (Kerala has 548 km of roads per 100 sq km area), improved response time of ambulances (the average being 20 minutes), availability of quality medical care and better rule enforcement as among the reasons for the decline in fatalities. “Efforts are under way to further reduce the response time of ambulance services to 15 minutes by networking private and public sector ambulances and by mapping of hospitals. Kerala is in the 19th position among the Indian States in the accident fatality rate, although it has 450 vehicles per 1,000 people – comparable with 507 vehicles per 1,000 people in the U.S. The noticeable fall in the fatality rate is pertinent, especially since the number of vehicles in the State has been increasing by over 10% every year,” says Mr. Elangovan. Among the five months, the decline was the steepest in January (17.40%) when the number fell to 379 from 459 registered during January 2019.

The accident rate saw a marginal increase of 0.9% in January-May 2022 as compared with the 2019 figures, rising from 18,143 to 18,307. It fell by 8.7%, to 3,356 in February as compared with 3,674 in February 2019.

Maximum in Wayanad

Among districts, Wayanad recorded the maximum reduction of 29.30% in fatalities, with the number of road accident deaths falling from 41 to 29 for the period. The fatalities in Ernakulam – which recorded the maximum number of accident deaths – fell 11.20%, from 232 to 206.

Kottayam recorded a 15.70% fall in accidents, from 1,213 to 1,023 – the maximum dip among districts, even as Kannur saw a 25.7% increase, with accidents increasing from 945 to 1,188. The number of accidents in Thiruvananthapuram fell from 2,345 to 2,063, a 12% decline.

https://epaper.thehindu.com/Home/MShareArticle?OrgId=GH7A02P7D.1&imageview=0