Road accident deaths on the rise in Jagatsinghpur

Jagatsinghpur: Fatalities due to road accidents are on the rise in Jagatsinghpur district.

Fiftyone persons died and 70 were injured in the last six months in 137 road accidents, according to the District Road Safety Committee. The committee held its meeting on Tuesday and expressed its concern over the increasing number of road accidents in the district.

The meeting discussed the reasons behind the road accidents such as overspeeding, drunken driving, distracted driving, red light jumping, avoiding safety gear like seat belts and helmets, non-adherence to lane driving and wrong overtaking.

Lack of awareness about traffic rules, safe driving practices as well as road safety measures among the public mainly the young mass, and lack of enforcement both by the MV department and police are significant reasons behind increasing road accidents in the district, the committee said. It is essential to address these factors to reduce the number of road accidents and make roads safer for everyone, the panel added.

The District Road Transport Authority revealed at the meeting that the Enforcement department has issued 14,116 E- challans and driving licences of 910 people have been cancelled for violating traffic rules. The maximum number of fatalities were reported due to vehicles hitting from behind, rash overtaking and head-on collision.

Two persons, Subash Chandra Patra and Manoranjan Mallick, were felicitated and given cash prize of Rs 2,000 each for their initiative in admitting road accident victims in hospital.

The meeting was attended by Collector Parul Patwari, Additional SP Amarendra Panda, Sub-Collector, engineers from Roads and Buildings, NHAI, Rural Development department, RTO Nirmal Mohanty and Road Safety Committee members.