229 people die of road accident since January in Varanasi

Varanasi: A total of 773 people died in road accidents in the last 33 months of which, 230 deaths were due to accidents on highways.

Since January 1, 2023, 229 people have lost their lives in road accidents in four police stations in National Highway, Baragaon, Chaubepur, Mirzamurad and Phulpur. Most of the accidents occurred during the day while in some cases the victims had fallen asleep during the accident.

The spike in accident rates has left the transport department worried. There are eight black spots in the district where maximum accidents have been recorded. These spots are Harhua Bazaar and Chilbila in Baragaon police station, Gilat Bazaar to Tarna in Shivpur police station, Bhiti to Tagra point from Vishwa Sundari bridge in Ramnagar police station and Sujabad, Mohansarai bypass and Amra Akhari bypass in Rohaniya police station and Dhamaria bridge in Lohta police station.

In the last six months, more than 70 persons died in road accidents and 80 others were seriously injured in Varanasi. A horrific road accident took place on the Varanasi-Lucknow highway on Wednesday morning that claimed eight lives. The accident was so severe that the vehicle was severely damaged.

Some of the reasons behind the accidents have been found to be high speed, unauthorised bends on the highway, illegal food outlets and haphazardly parked vehicles. In many cases, passengers were found without wearing seat belts and helmets.

RTO Sarvesh Chaturvedi said, "Road safety committee meetings are being held almost every month under the chairmanship of the district magistrate. All the nodal departments, including transport, NHAI, PWD, higher education, secondary education, primary education and police attended the meetings.

"Issues pertaining to road safety rules were discussed at the meetings. Along with this, measures to overcome the shortcomings were also taken up. The black spots have been inspected in collaboration with police. Construction agencies have been deployed for repairing damaged roads," Chaturvedi added.