Chennai has the highest number of drunk driving deaths in the country according to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) report.
In the NCRB’s ‘Accident and Suicide Report 2015’, it states that there have been 93 deaths and 568 injuries due to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
A senior traffic police official told The New Indian Express that unless hefty spot fines for traffic violations and driving license cancellation for drunk driving are not allowed, it is difficult to keep the accidents under check.
Moreover, Tamil Nadu also leads in road accident fatalities. About 13% deaths due to accidents were reported in the state. There were 17,376 deaths due to accidents most of them involving two-wheelers, and it also includes accidents due to trucks, buses and SUVs. Chennai constituted 9.3% of the total road accidents in the country, which accounts for 7,328 out of 78,500 cases, reported TNIE.
The report also states that most of these accidents happened on the State Highways and not on National Highways. While 9,380 accidents were due to over-speeding, 3,948 accidents were due to overtaking at curves.
Tamil Nadu also recorded the highest number of pedestrian accidents in cities at 1,061. About 204 people died after being hit by a speeding vehicle at pedestrian crossings.
The traffic police official told TNIE that one of the major reasons for accidents in urban areas was violation of lane-crossing rules and also because many of the citizens prefer private vehicles to public transport which leads to traffic and road accidents.