SHIMLA: Most of the road fatalities take place in the evening hours from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM in Himachal Pradesh. Most of the drivers involved in accidents are less than 40 years in age and Shimla district tops the accident chart.
This fact of fatalities came to the fore at a day long awareness campaign launched here by the Roads, railways traffic police.
The police analysed the data of Himachal Pradesh for the last 5 years and found that Shimla district lead in the road fatalities in late evening hours between 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM.
The police brought on board drivers, locals and officials and tourists during the campaign for the awareness of the locals and the tourists in the district today.
But the police did not cite exact reasons for the higher graph of road fatalities in the Shimla district.
The experts attribute it the over-speeding, reckless and drunken driving, black spots and lack of crash barriers and road signs and bad and potholed roads in the steep hills of the state.
There are steep hilly narrow curves on the #bad roads" in the district and other accident-prone spots elsewhere in the state, which are responsible for the road accidents, they observe.
The DIG, roads, railways traffic police Gurdev Sharma who presided over the workshop said it was worrisome that the road fatalities in Himachal Pradesh are on the rise and the Shimla district toops the accident chart in the state.
AIG Sandeep Dhaval and Additional Superintendent of Police Narvir Singh Rathore were also present and made the drivers and participants aware about the road safety on the occasion.
Police officials gave detailed information about traffic rules and traffic to about 150 HRTC truck and taxi drivers.
Sharma said they analysed the record of road accidents in Himachal Pradesh for the last five years and found that most of the accidents take place between 6 pm and 9 pm.
Most of the drivers who committed the accident were found to be in their 40s.
The graph of accidents in the Shimla districts is higher than other districts, he said.
What is worrisome is number of pedestrians is in the state is also increasing that calls for road safety in the state. This has made safety concern on the roads all the more pressing for the public.
The police also urged the Transport Department, Truck and Taxi Unions to reward the drivers who do good work every year.
A free eye checkup camp was also organized at DDU Regional Hospital, Shimla.
About 90 drivers were examined. Such camps will be organized in the future aswell, Sharma said.
