Joaquim Fernandes

Panaji, Nov 1 (TOI): Deaths due to accidents on Goan roads rose by almost 16% as of date, corresponding to the same period last year.

While motor vehicle accidents also increased, traffic offences and fines levied by traffic police decreased slightly for the period from January till date as compared to the same period last year.

The North Goa deputy superintendent of police (traffic), Jayprakash Nagvenkar, told TOI that from January 2010 till date, there were 248 fatalities on Goan roads as compared to 214 road deaths for the same period last year. Nagvenkar said majority of the accidents and fatalities involved two-wheeler riders indicating that the victims were young in age.

Goa registered a total of 3,600 motor vehicle accidents till date as compared to 3,300 accidents for the same period last year indicating an 8.3% increase in motor vehicle accidents in Goa. In this, there were 248 fatal accidents, 215 accidents with grievous injuries (fractures, head injuries, etc.) and 1,920 non-injury accidents. The corresponding figures for the above categories for the same period last year were 214 (fatal), 155 (grievous) and 1,571 (non-injury).

Besides specifying that a majority of accidents involved two-wheeler riders, Nagvenkar said most of the accidents were due to poor road conditions.

The overall traffic offences registered by Goa traffic police decreased marginally. While last year, traffic police registered 1,91,646 offences (January - October), this year they registered 1,91,595 traffic violations, an increase of 51 offences.

The first prize for traffic offences again went to two-wheeler riders. Traffic police registered 50,825 offences against 2-wheeler riders riding without helmets. Other offences registered were for dangerous parking on public roads (18,856), no entry (18,558), driving without seat belt (13,712), tinted glasses (11,378), over-speeding (6,430), dangerous overtaking (4,905), driving without proper lights (2,940), lane cutting (2,100), using mobile phone while driving (1,471), rash and negligent driving (1,340) and drunken driving (1,033). There were other minor offences including 175 cases of pollution-under-control (PUC) violations.

The fines imposed by police somehow reduced slightly. While last year, traffic police had collected 2,75,97,600 ( ` 2.75 crore), for the same period this year, traffic police collected 2,61,19,500 ( ` 2.61 crore).

Does the rise in road fatalities and accidents reflect poorly on traffic police and their competence to control traffic in Goa? According to DySP Nagvenkar, the traffic cell of Goa police is poorly staffed. Besides, Nagvenkar says traffic police do "double duty" in the sense that traffic police carry out enforcement duties in addition to controlling and regulating traffic in six cities of Goa- Panaji, Mapusa, Ponda, Margao, Vasco and Curchorem.

And when there is a major event like the recent one-day cricket international game at Fatorda, then the entire traffic cell is mobilised there for duty. The total staff of the Goa traffic cell is 279 policemen, Nagvenkar said. Being understaffed, their personnel are mostly overworked, he added.

So the traffic cell has come out with a new concept of taking assistance from students to regulate traffic in towns where traffic police have cells. The concept is called 'Road Safety Patrol' (RSP). In this, around 500 school and college students have been enrolled. These students will be given RSP uniforms and will assist traffic police to regulate the traffic in main cities. Since there is no budget, no payments will be made to the students; they will only be given refreshments, Nagvenkar said.