Despite the lockdown, the misery of the people continue to rise. About 140 lives lost in over 600 road accidents over the course of the two phases of the nationwide lockdown between March 24 and May 3, according to a report by Save LIFE Foundation.
Of this count, 30 per cent of the victims were migrant workers returning to their homes, said the report by the non-profit organisation, which works towards curbing road accidents in the country.
While there were 17 essential workers who died in a road accident amid the ongoing coronavirus lockdown.
The report says as many as 600 road accidents were recorded across the country during the two phases of Lockdown. Apart from 42 migrant workers, 17 essential workers also died in road accidents.
“These numbers should be treated as the minimum numbers since we did not get replies from several states and believe some single-fatality crashes may not have been written about,” Save Life Foundation CEO Piyush Tewari.
“India suffers the highest number of road crashes deaths each year. While there is an obvious dip in the fatalities during the lockdown period, 140 deaths in 600 crashes shows that the death to crashes ratio is as usual. Our governments should use the lockdown to fix engineering faults in our roads and institute mechanism of electronic enforcement so that once the lockdown ends, we can keep road fatalities low,” Tewari said.
Of the 140 fatalities, over 100 were reported from nine states of Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Assam, Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Punjab and Tamil Nadu. Punjab has reported the maximum number of people dying in road accidents during the lockdown, followed by Kerala, Delhi and Karnataka.
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