Nagpur: The death of eight persons in a highway accident in Bhandara district on Friday prompted road-safety NGO Janakrosh to appeal to motorists to slow down, with the organisation citing govt data that puts speed behind over 70% of fatal road accidents in India.Ravindra Kaskhedikar, secretary of Janakrosh, said, “Speed alone accounts for nearly 70% of fatal road accidents. Even where the cause is recorded as human error, which itself makes up around 78% of all fatal crashes, an overwhelming majority of those cases still come down to excessive speed.”Ramesh Shahare, senior member of Janakrosh, said even some city roads in Nagpur see motorists driving at highway-level speeds, which he called dangerous given the mix of pedestrians, two-wheelers and slow-moving traffic on such stretches. Sahare said “ People need to understand that staying within the permissible speed limits and exceeding it can be the difference between life and death.”The appeal comes even as Nagpur has recorded a decline in road accidents and fatalities this year. The city reported 701 road accidents till Aug, down 15.1% from 826 during the corresponding period last year. Fatal accidents fell 21.7%, from 198 to 155, while deaths declined 21.9%, from 210 to 164. The number of those injured in road accidents dropped 11.2%, from 752 to 668.According to the Road Accidents in India 2024 report of the Union ministry of road transport and highways, over-speeding accounted for 70.28% of all road accident deaths in the country last year, and its share of both accidents and deaths rose over 2023 even as fatalities linked to drunken driving, wrong-side driving, red-light jumping and mobile phone use fell.Shahare said the decline in Nagpur’s numbers is welcome but should not lead to complacency. “India ranks first in the world in the number of road accidents, and that alone tells us how much work remains to be done. A falling death count is not the goal. The goal has to be zero fatalities, and we cannot afford to relax our efforts until we get there,” said Sahare.The latest figures also show the continuing vulnerability of pedestrians. As many as 49 pedestrians were killed in Nagpur in the first eight months of this year, accounting for nearly 30% of all fatalities. Data compiled since Jan 2024 shows 247 of the 776 people killed in road accidents in the city, about 32%, were pedestrians, with the share rising each year.Janakrosh has been conducting road-safety awareness campaigns in Nagpur and has repeatedly flagged speeding, wrong-side driving, dangerous overtaking and failure to maintain a safe distance as recurring causes of accidents on city roads. Among its recommended fixes are heavier fines for over-speeding, mandatory speed governors on vehicles, speed breakers at accident-prone spots, stricter CCTV-based enforcement and sustained driver counselling.Shahare’s message to motorists was direct. “Slow down, maintain a safe distance, avoid rash overtaking and follow traffic rules. These are not complicated instructions. They are basics, and they save lives,” he said.
