TN police report a decline in fatal road accidents

Tamil Nadu has reported a 5% decline in the number of fatal road accidents and resulting deaths during January-July 2024 compared to the data from the same period last year.

Director General of Police and Chief of Police Force Shankar Jiwal attributed the decline in fatal road accidents to effective enforcement of traffic rules and other road safety measures and said the number of fatal road accidents reported till July this year was 10,066. in which 10,546 people lost their lives, compared to 10,589 fatal road accidents and 11,106 deaths in the previous year.

Some of the focus areas that helped in controlling accidents included issuance of citations to violators, anti-drunk driving, deployment of 24-hour highway patrols on national highways, analysis of accident hotspots and rectification of deficiencies, among others. “These measures have made a significant positive contribution to improving traffic and road accident situation in the state,” Mr Jiwal said in a statement released on Sunday.

Suspension of driver’s license

In the current year (as of July), 76,15,713 cases have been registered for violations of the Motor Vehicles Act. Recommendations have been sent to the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) to suspend the driving licenses of 1,82,375 persons who had violated various motor vehicle regulations. Of these, 39,924 driving licenses were revoked by the authorities.

The 218 highway patrol vehicles covering the stretch of National Highways and State Highways through Tamil Nadu had rescued 8,809 people critically injured in road accidents within the golden hour and shifted them to nearest hospitals for treatment. In total, motorway police vehicles helped 14,957 people in road accidents, the DGP said.