Deadly roads: Half of total fatalities under five police stations in Ludhiana

Nearly half of the fatalities due to road accidents in the city between 2019 and 2021 took place in areas under the jurisdiction of five police stations of Ludhiana police commissionerate, a recently released report has revealed.

As these police stations lie on the periphery of Ludhiana city and cater to crucial national and state highways and city roads, as many as 491 accident deaths were recorded here out of a total of 994 fatalities.

The data was presented in the report titled ‘Road Safety Assessment of Ludhiana’ released on Saturday. Ludhiana police commissionerate has a total of 28 police stations.

While the Focal Point and Sahnewal Police stations have a sizable chunk of industrial area and National National Highway-44 under their jurisdiction. Dehlon Police Station falls on the Ludhiana-Malerkotla state highway, which also sees a high rate of accidents.

Among the accident hotspots also is a stretch around Dholewal Chowk and Samrala Chowk which falls under the Jurisdiction of Divison no 6 police station. The Salem Tabri police station which has the Jalandhar Bypass area and accident-prone stretch of NH-44 under its jurisdiction is on the list of police stations.

In a telling example, 47-year-old Rachpal Singh of Shimlapuri, who was riding a two-wheeler was mowed down by a truck near Dholewal Chowk in February this year. Division no 6 police had registered an FIR against an unidentified driver of the truck.

Jagjeet, a 35-year-old factory worker, was killed after being hit by a speeding car in February. He was going back to his workplace after having lunch at an eatery. Focal point police had registered a case against the driver of the car.

Speaking about the findings, traffic advisor and centre’s director Navdeep K Asija said that the unit-level data can help the administration in a big way to analyse the causes of road accidents and take remedial actions.

He said that targeted enforcement at the police station level should be the way to go and the authorities can see the change in a short span of time.

Fatalities high on weekends

The highest number of fatalities in Ludhiana between 2019 and 2021 were recorded on weekends. Out of a total of 994 fatalities, 151 fatalities were reported on Saturdays and 148 were reported on Sundays during the period.

The fatalities that took place on weekends accounted for 30% of the total deaths between 2019 and 2021.

The report also noted that 37% of the fatalities took place between 6 pm to 12 pm.

Pointing towards the inadequate lighting and reflectors on the roads as the reason, Rahul Verma, a member of the Punjab Road Safety Council, said that roads under MC are in the worst condition when it comes to lighting. He said that while the NHAI has taken measures to improve the situation, the local administration has ignored the same.