Fatal road accidents steeply rise in Udupi

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, July 21, 2016: Speaking after inaugurating ‘Save a life – Accident and first aid awareness campaign for youth’, organised by the district police and Rotary Udupi at MPM First Grade College, Manipal, on July 20, Wednesday;  SP K. Annamalai, endent of Police, said that despite the police booking more cases for violation of traffic and road safety rules, the number of persons losing their lives in road accidents was on  the increase in Udupi district.

SP Annamalai said that 331 persons died in Udupi district in 2014 and the police booked about 50,000 cases of traffic violations.

But in 2015, though 62,000 cases of traffic violations were booked, the number of people dying in road accidents increased to 360. In the first six months of this year, already the police had booked 74,000 cases, but the death toll in road accidents was close to touching the last year’s figures.

In the backdrop of the tragic accident at Trasi, where eight schoolchildren in a van were killed on National Highway 66, when a private bus hit it on June 21, the district police had launched a month-long ‘Operation Suraksha’ programme on July 18.

Under this programme, cases were being booked for even small traffic violations including not wearing helmet, driving in wrong direction, and not having proper number boards on NH 66 and Padubidri-Karkala Road. On July 18 alone, the police booked 831 cases in the district, while the cases booked on July 19 were 1,122.   “We have seized the vehicles of all the traffic rules violators. They will be returned to them only after they attend one-hour counseling programme on road safety at district police office here on Sunday,” he said.

It was surprising that Udupi, despite being considered a highly literate district in the State, had so many traffic violations. China and India occupied the first and second places in the world as far as road fatalities were concerned. But in China, the graph was declining, whereas it was showing a northward trend in India, SP  Annamalai added.

Subramanya Basri, Rotary Assistant Governor, P. Dayananda Shetty, college correspondent, P. Radhika, college principal, Suresh S., Rotary president, and others were present.