391 accident black spots identified in Punjab’s 12 districts

The Punjab government has identified 391 road accident black spots in 12 districts of the state.

Of these, 256 black spots fall on national highways, 66 on roads maintained by the public works department, 42 on urban roads and the remaining 27 on rural roads, said Tandarust Punjab Mission director KS Pannu while releasing the first report on “Identification and Rectification of Punjab Road Accident Black Spots” in Chandigarh on Thursday.

The accident-prone spots have been identified jointly by the “Punjab Vision Zero Accident” team and the traffic wing of Punjab Police under the Tandarust Punjab Mission.

Pannu said 2,898 road accidents took place at the 391 identified black spots between 2016 and 2018, leading to 1,910 fatalities along with grave injuries to 1,401 and injuries to 488 people.

Among the districts, Mohali has the highest number of 92 road accident black spots followed by 91 in the jurisdiction of Ludhiana police commissionerate. Besides, six black spots have been identified under the jurisdiction of Amritsar police (rural), 23 in areas under the Amritsar police commissionerate, nine in Batala, 12 in Gurdaspur, eight in Tarn Taran, 21 in areas under the jalandhar police commissionerate, nine in Moga, 55 in Patiala, 30 in Rupnagar, 21 in SBS Nagar, eight in Bathinda and six in Sangrur.

As per the directions of the Union road transport and highways ministry, a road is termed as the accident black spot if on any 500 meters stretch of that road more than five accidents had taken place in three consecutive years, causing death and fatal injuries. A spot where 10 people have died in road accidents in the last three consecutive years also falls in this category.

Pannu said the details of black spots would be conveyed to all departments of the state government for rectification measures and the details of those falling on national highways would be taken up with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) with the request for urgent corrective measures on account of 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.