'Most accidents caused by drunken driving’

CHANDIGARH: Drunken driving is a leading cause of road accidents in Punjab and nearly 3,400 people die due to this in the state in a year, most of them young. On an average more than 6,000 road accidents take place in a year and nearly 5,500 people are injured in these.
These shocking figures were tabled in Punjab assembly on Saturday as part of report on road accidents and measures to check these.The report was directed to be prepared by a committee set up during the budget session this year after Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira had called attention to the issue.
The report highlights plight of people whose family member, in majority of cases earning member of the family, have died and they have to suffer for months to get compensation, if at all they are insured. It was found that 40% of the fatal accidents occur in six main cities of the state – Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Mohali and Bathinda.
In the past six months about 3,200 road accidents have occurred in Punjab in which 1,658 people have died and 3,068 injured. Last year, the state saw 6,641 accidents in which 3,424 people died and 5,854 people were injured.
A large number of those who become fatal victims of road accidents in cities are pedestrians and cyclists. The report also cites estimates of road safety science which says that 8 to 12% road accidents are caused due to human error. However, the report has also blamed a series of road design failures including blind turns, poor design for pedestrians, link roads directly meeting main roads in rural areas besides poor lighting of roads at night.
Punjab, says the report, has nearly 50 lakh motor vehicles and nearly 2 crore non-motorized vehicles in the state. The state has road infrastructure of 64,000km out of 1,739km are national highways and 1,503 state highways.
The report has highlighted measures taken by Chandigarh police to control drunken driving in UT. It has been suggested that like UT police, Punjab police too should have emphasis on alcohol analyzers at night.
Stress has been laid that people should be compelled through repeated challans and aggressive drives that they should have one person in the car who does not drink so that he can drive the drunken company in the car safely back home.