Blood spots: Rise in road accidents in Odisha raises alarm

Odisha’s spacious road network plays an important role in the state’s development. But it has also led to an alarming rise in accidents. While driving error remains a major concern, faulty road designs also pose a challenge to commuter safety. TOI gives the lowdown
People tend to hold on to their first impressions. For any visitor to Odisha, the first impression is the state’s beautiful and spacious road network.Be it the remote and hilly districts of Koraput, Malkangiri and Rayagada or coastal pockets of Puri, Cuttack and Khurda, the state’s roads make drives smooth and comfortable.
But there’s a flip side. The smooth roads have immensely contributed to the state’s development and growth of the economy, but have also led to an alarming rise in road accidents.
Odisha’s rate of accident severity (persons killed per 100 accidents) continues to be a cause for concern if official data is any indication. According to the Road Accidents in India-2022 report, the rate of severity of road accidents stands at 46.9 in Odisha against the national average of 36.5 in 2022. The accident severity rate in the state was 48.3 against the national rate of 36 in 2020 and 46.3 against the national rate of 37 in 2021.
After Covid, the Odisha transport department undertook a series of measures, both short and long term, to reverse the fatality rate, but to no avail. Now, the moot question remains, where the faults lie?
According to road safety experts, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and state works department — custodians of the state and national highways in Odisha — have failed to rectify the accident black spots. Though the two agencies have been conducting surveys and third party audit of roads and earmarking black spots, accidents continue to occur.
Debu Nayak, a road safety campaigner and founder of Odisha Calling Foundation, said there is a need for scientific analysis of each black spot and causes of fatal accidents. “We usually see the police in most cases closing accident cases by attributing the reasons to rash and negligent driving. They hardly try to find out other factors like bad condition of roads, any mechanical failures in vehicles or any fault with the driving skills of drivers,” Nayak said.
“We feel that the solution lies with the engineers of the NHAI and works department. Identifying accident black spots is easy. However, getting them rectified with foolproof interventions has not been done properly. Engineers have to find out faults in road designs, signage and lighting systems. They should also build underpasses and foot overbridges,” said Prakash Mohapatra, secretary of Sankha Dhwani Rasta Surkashya, a private organisation working on road safety.
In a recent road safety related meeting, NHAI officials said the ministry of road transport and highways provides special funds to states for rectification of black spots. Sources said though the NHAI’s Odisha office notified several new black spots, the ministry has not yet acknowledged them.
NHAI officials said they have been taking steps to rectify the black spots on highways. “As per protocol, we are taking road safety measures for the removal of black spots on top priority. Short-term measures like installation of road signs, road markings, speed reduction measures and repair of damages causing unsafe conditions on the national highways have been taken up,” an NHAI official said.
The transport department has asked NHAI, police and regional transport officers (RTO)s to ensure encroachments along highways, including near black spots, are removed immediately. The department said encroachments like unauthorised shops, roadside dhabas, garages and houses exist at many places on NHs, causing accidents and traffic congestions. The presence of illegal establishments is a punishable offence under the Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002 and empowers NHAI to take action against encroachers.
As part of the road safety measures, the transport department has asked the NHAI to provide requisite infrastructure on highways across Odisha for implementation of camera-based Intelligent Enforcement Management System (IEMS), an initiative to take action against violators of traffic rules.
“We have proposed to the NHAI that it should put in place the infrastructure for IEMS on NHs across the state. Cameras can detect vehicles for over-speeding, triple riding, wrong-lane movement, without helmet, rash driving etc.,” state transport commissioner Amitabh Thakur said.