Out of 15,044 accidents in state till March, Chennai tops with 1,990

According to the road accident analysis data released by the Transport and Road Safety Commissioner, out of 15,044 road accidents witnessed in the state, Chennai alone recorded 1,990 accidents till March this year. As far as fatalities are concerned, the city again topped with 341 deaths as against the State’stotal of 2,774.

Kancheepuram stood second only to Chennai with 879 accidents while Salem and Villupuram witnessed 743 and 735 accidents respectively. In terms of fatalities, Kancheepuram recorded the second highest number of deaths with 237 while Coimbatore came third with160 deaths.

Districts such as Chennai, Virudhunagar, Sivaganga, Kanniyakumari, Dindigul, Tiruvarur, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram, Vellore and Thoothukudi witnessed an increasing trend in the number of accidents up to March 2019 when compared to the corresponding period last year, the report titled “Road Accident Analysis in Tamil Nadu January 2019” said.

“Even though number of the total accidents have gone up, fatalities have come down in Dindigul, Tiruvarur, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram, Vellore, and Thoothukudi. In Karur and Theni, despite decrease in total accidents, the fatalities have increased,” it said. According to the data on different types of vehicles involved in the accidents, the maximum of 6,357 accidents involved two-wheelers while four-wheelers like car, jeep, taxi and tempo traveller stood second with 4,030 accidents. “Two-wheelers accounted for the maximum number of fatalities with 978 while the four-wheelers came second with 668 fatalities,” it said.

A senior transport department official said that the total number of accidents and deaths have been coming down in the last two years following strict action taken by the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety to bring such incidents down. “Drunken driving, over speeding, aggressive driving, use of cell phone, etc, account for over 98 per cent of accidents. So, we have been taking strict action on the erring drivers with the suspension of many driving licences,” the official said, adding, that as many as 16,375 licences were suspended for traffic violations till March this year.