‘Amar Mahal Junction a high-risk one, Godrej jn next on list’

Cops on duty at the Amar Mahal Junction in December last year. File pic

Amar Mahal Junction tops the list of ‘High Risk Junctions' of the city, as per a report released by the Mumbai Traffic Police in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety. The Mumbai Road Safety Annual Report 2020 reveals that the junction witnessed 23 fatalities and 54 serious injuries due to road accidents from 2018 to 2020.

This is followed by Godrej Junction with 16 fatalities and 57 serious injuries), and the intersection of Eastern Express Highway and JVLR, Kanjur Marg East (11 fatalities, 57 serious injuries). However, the department is considering engineering and traffic regulations to reduce fatalities at the junctions. Mumbai Police Chief Hemant Nagrale released the report during a press conference held on Tuesday. Though the year 2020 saw a decline in road accidents due to the Covid-19 lockdown, a total of 350 people died in such incidents.

According to the report, the 250-metre radius of the Amar Mahal Junction, which connects Shivaji Nagar, Ghatkopar and Chedda Nagar, reported the maximum number of fatalities between 2018 and 2020.

Fatalities on highways

The report further states that there is not much difference between the fatalities and injuries that happened at the junctions on the Western Express Highway (WEH) and Eastern Express Highway (EEH) over the last year. At the six junctions on the WEH, there were 46 deaths and 182 serious injuries and the same at five junctions of the EEH was 46 deaths and 175 serious injuries.

Drunk-driving

Road accidents due to drunk-driving has decreased over the past six years. In 2015, 14 deaths and 105 injuries happened due to drunk-driving, but the same reduced to nine deaths and 47 injuries in 2020.

Hit-and-run

In 2020, 42 per cent of all the fatal accidents were hit-and-run cases. Of the people who died due to such incidents, 57 per cent were pedestrians while 33 per cent were bikers. The intersection of Bombay Port Trust Road and Sant Savta Mali Marg, Byculla tops the list of high-risk junctions for pedestrian hit-and-run fatalities with four such incidents.

Speaking to mid-day, Joint Commissioner (Traffic), Rajvardhan said, "From 2015 to 2019, Mumbai witnessed a 27 per cent decrease in deaths due to road accidents. During the lockdown the numbers further declined, as traffic movement was less. Compared to 2019, fatalities reduced by 22 per cent and serious injuries by 41 per cent. We are aware of the challenges ahead of us and pedestrian deaths are among that. We are working on making the city roads safe for pedestrians."

Accidents in 4 years
Year Serious Fatalities
accidents
2016 529 562
2017 467 490
2018 456 475
2019 420 447
2020 338 350