‘Road deaths fall; 8-9pm worst hour, 51% victims pedestrians’

MUMBAI: Fatalities on the two busiest and most dangerous arteries of the city – the Western and Eastern Express Highways – came down 30% from 2017 to 2018, said the latest report on road safety. Overall, road deaths across the city have also reduced by 22% from 2015 to 2018.
Traffic police attributed the drop to regular checks or nakabandis at ‘black spots’ (chronic accident locations) and strict enforcement of rules on speeding and drunk driving. In all, 475 people were killed on the roads in 2018, said a report released on Thursday by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) in association with Mumbai Traffic Police.
It added that pedestrians continued to be the most vulnerable road user group, making up more than half of all fatalities last year. Three- and four-wheelers were the biggest killers, causing almost half of the 475 deaths in 2018. The report said the maximum fatal crashes occurred between 8pm and 9pm on weekdays and between 2am and 3am on weekends.