There’s one positive side to Bengaluru’s traffic – yes, you heard that right. The congested roads, which had earlier stopped a terror attack, can very well be the cause of fewer road accidents in the IT capital of the country.
Statistics by the Bengaluru Traffic Police state that the number of roads kills have decreased since 2017. In 2017, the number of accidental deaths was 642 and till November 2018, the number is 611. This is incidentally the lowest number of road kills since 2014.
The numbers have been reducing since 2016. The same growth stunt has been recorded in the number of road accidents registered by the Traffic Police. The number of accidents in Bengaluru roads recorded in 2016, 2017 and 2018 stood at 5,333, 5,064 and 4,172 respectively.
“Our focus is not on generating record fines. We are deploying personnel at accident spots and congested stretches, instead of booking cases,” Additional Commissioner of Traffic Police of Bengaluru told The Times of India.
According to experts, the congestion on the city’s roads prevents over-speeding during most hours of the day and as a result, has led to a decrease in the number of road accidents.
The main reason for the reduction in the number of accidents can be explained in the rise in the number of vehicles. The IT city, with an increased migrant population, has seen a massive spike in the number of private vehicles in the city, especially two-wheelers.
In September, the number of Karnataka vehicles registered in Bengaluru alone had gone up to 70 lakh. Out of this, 48.69 lakh were two-wheelers while the total population of the city is estimated to be more than a 1 crore. With this growth rate, Bengaluru will have more than one crore vehicles in the next four years.