Road mishaps, fatalities on the rise in Mumbai: RR Patil

The Maharashtra government on Monday said that there was a rise in the number of road accidents and related deaths in Mumbai last year as compared to the year before.

To mitigate the problem, the government said it plans to follow the pattern used in states like Karnataka and Gujarat which earmark 20% of fines collected for flouting traffic rules on purchasing road safety equipment like speed guns, road signage, and reflector jackets for the traffic police.

While giving a written reply in the legislative council, home minister RR Patil said that the number of fatal road accidents in the city and its suburbs in 2009 were 607, which caused 628 deaths. The figure of fatal accidents in 2010 went up to 609, leading to 637 deaths, a comparative increase of two accidents and nine fatalities.

Releasing state-wide statistics, Patil said that the latest figures (2010) of fatal accidents across the state were 71,289, leading to 12,340 deaths, with 24,376 seriously injured and 22,609 people suffering minor injuries.

He said that according to a report submitted by the accident monitoring committee in March 2010, there were 7,375 accident-prone spots in the state of which additional safety measures had been taken on 6,588 sites and work was on at 86 more.

He said setting up additional safety measures at the remaining 701 sites will be taken up during this financial year as per availability of funds.