Punjab has witnessed 15 per cent decline in road accident fatalities and 18 per cent reduction in road accidents during 2020 as compared to 2019.

As per the data, 5194 accidents were registered in the year 2020 while 3866 people lost their lives in road accidents in the same year.

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The Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Dinkar Gupta on Tuesday said considering road safety as a major concern, the Punjab Police has been leaving no stone unturned to make the Punjab roads safer for commuters.

Gupta said to institutionalise the Road Safety, a pilot project “Accident Resolution Team” (ART) was initiated in the Patiala district under which the teams led by the station house officer (SHO) visits and inspects the black spots in their respective jurisdictions.

Patiala police have formulated 25 such ARTs and as many as 20 rectifications have already been realised, mostly on Patiala-Sirhind road, resulting in a remarkable decline in the accident rate.

A standard operating procedure (SOP) to prevent deaths due to stray animals has been formulated by the Punjab Police and cattle accident black spots are also being identified, said the DGP, adding that 25 such black spots mostly in the Malwa belt have been earmarked and reflective tapes are being tied around the necks of stray cattle to avert accidents.

Traffic Advisor Navdeep Asija said after analysing the Road Accident Database Management System, as many as 391 black spots were identified in Punjab of which 100 black spots have already been rectified by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) while 31 black spots are being corrected by the State Public Works Department (PWD).

Additional DGP (traffic) Sharad Satya Chauhan said that the traffic wing has established a first of its kind Road Safety and Traffic Research Centre in Mohali, which uses scientific tools of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to find appropriate solutions to curb the road accidents fatalities in the state.

He said to strengthen scientific road crash investigation, the Punjab Police have also inhouse developed “Crash Investigation Vehicle” at the Centre.