oa Road Accidents In Bangalore: A Report

Presently there are about 53 lakh vehicles plying on Bangalore’s roads. The absolute number of road accidents has also been growing at an alarming rate which reflects concomitant investment in road safety strategies coupled with rapid rate of motorisation. At the same time, there is lacuna in the whole system of reporting, recording and analysing road traffic crashes. The process of building a report on ‘road accidents in Bangalore” started with data procurement, followed by entry of the data collected, and then analysis of accidents that took place in the years of 2011, 2012 and 2013. A broad accident pattern for these years was established on a macro level. It was inferred that accident occurrence varied between 14-15 accidents every day on an average, with accidents increasingly happening over week-ends, more in the evenings and late night hours and about 20% of the total casualties reported were pedestrians, followed by two-wheeler riders (37%) who are categorized as Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs). On a microscopical level, 10 blackspots were identified. As a pilot project, Blackspot treatment was initiated for Old Madras Road. A 10-pronged approach was adopted and counter measures were developed under all the four E’s – engineering, enforcement, education and emergency. The evaluation of the implemented measures showed that there is reduction in accidents on the stretch to the tune of almost 38% resulting in savings to the economy of Rs.34.64 Lakhs. This success is achieved in less than six months of implementation, and shows that rigorous implementation of the structures and processes re¬quired to realise the Road Safety Programme is the key to its success. The main conclusion of the report was that the accident blackspot mitigation should become a continuous programme and should feature in all the stake holders’ agenda and budgets.