Times of India: Lucknow: Sunday, 7 April 2024.
Since its inception, Yamuna expressway has recorded on an average 110 casualties every year, but maximum deaths in the last decade were caused because the exhausted driver dozed off while cruising on the stretch which has 100 km/hour speed limit for light four-wheelers in clear weather.
An RTI reply by Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) has revealed that 1,320 people died while 11,168 were injured in 7,625 road accidents on the expressway between 2012 and 2023. The RTI states that in 3,364 road accidents, 522 lives were lost and 4,181 were injured after the drivers of the vehicles dozed off while driving.
The RTI query was filed by Agra-based road safety activist and Supreme Court lawyer Kishan Chand Jain.
YEIDA’s data reveals that the second biggest factor of 293 casualties on Yamuna expressway was negligent driving followed by 201 deaths due to overspeeding of vehicles. The 165km long expressway connecting Agra to Greater Noida, which registered over 23.21 crore vehicular movement in 12 years, also witnessed 90 deaths in 781 road accidents caused by tyre burst and 266 drunken driving accidents which killed 89 people.
“It is clear from the data that drowsiness is killing a lot more people than anything else on Yamuna expressway. A road safety policy should be introduced based on this data. Govt must bring a law to ascertain how many hours a person should be behind a steering wheel on the road in 24 hours. It’s astonishing that YEIDA maintains such categorised data but the annually published report of the ministry of road transport and highways does not follow such format. The central govt must improve the system of collecting road accident data for better road safety policy, or I will move a PIL petition in apex court compelling MoRTH to take appropriate steps,” said Jain.
Arbab Ahmad, a Lucknow-based road safety expert involved in the field for several years, said: “UP has provided direct road connectivity infrastructure connecting east to west but drivers are not acting responsibly. If we calculate the total distance between Purvanchal Expressway, Lucknow-Agra expressway, and Yamuna expressway, it’s around 810 km. Neither the people traveling in cars, nor bus transport service providers, especially the private ones, are taking sufficient rest in the journey. They feel overconfident about their driving skills, which is dangerous.” It is important to note that after the commissioning of Agra-Lucknow expressway, the average death in a year caused by drowsiness on Yamuna expressway is 54 per annum, which was 29 earlier.
Between 2012 and 2016, the total deaths on Yamuna expressway due to drivers dozing off was 146 but from 2017 to 2023, it is 376.
Since its inception, Yamuna expressway has recorded on an average 110 casualties every year, but maximum deaths in the last decade were caused because the exhausted driver dozed off while cruising on the stretch which has 100 km/hour speed limit for light four-wheelers in clear weather.
An RTI reply by Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) has revealed that 1,320 people died while 11,168 were injured in 7,625 road accidents on the expressway between 2012 and 2023. The RTI states that in 3,364 road accidents, 522 lives were lost and 4,181 were injured after the drivers of the vehicles dozed off while driving.
The RTI query was filed by Agra-based road safety activist and Supreme Court lawyer Kishan Chand Jain.
YEIDA’s data reveals that the second biggest factor of 293 casualties on Yamuna expressway was negligent driving followed by 201 deaths due to overspeeding of vehicles. The 165km long expressway connecting Agra to Greater Noida, which registered over 23.21 crore vehicular movement in 12 years, also witnessed 90 deaths in 781 road accidents caused by tyre burst and 266 drunken driving accidents which killed 89 people.
“It is clear from the data that drowsiness is killing a lot more people than anything else on Yamuna expressway. A road safety policy should be introduced based on this data. Govt must bring a law to ascertain how many hours a person should be behind a steering wheel on the road in 24 hours. It’s astonishing that YEIDA maintains such categorised data but the annually published report of the ministry of road transport and highways does not follow such format. The central govt must improve the system of collecting road accident data for better road safety policy, or I will move a PIL petition in apex court compelling MoRTH to take appropriate steps,” said Jain.
Arbab Ahmad, a Lucknow-based road safety expert involved in the field for several years, said: “UP has provided direct road connectivity infrastructure connecting east to west but drivers are not acting responsibly. If we calculate the total distance between Purvanchal Expressway, Lucknow-Agra expressway, and Yamuna expressway, it’s around 810 km. Neither the people traveling in cars, nor bus transport service providers, especially the private ones, are taking sufficient rest in the journey. They feel overconfident about their driving skills, which is dangerous.” It is important to note that after the commissioning of Agra-Lucknow expressway, the average death in a year caused by drowsiness on Yamuna expressway is 54 per annum, which was 29 earlier.
Between 2012 and 2016, the total deaths on Yamuna expressway due to drivers dozing off was 146 but from 2017 to 2023, it is 376.
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