As many as 27,167 people were killed in road accidents in Odisha over the last five years, averaging 5,433 fatalities annually, Commerce and Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena informed the State Assembly on Friday.
During the same period, 50,041 people were injured in road accidents across the state.
Annually around 5,500 people are losing their lives in road accidents. The Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety is monitoring the Road Safety activity of the state on a regular basis. Road safety is a high priority area for the Government and we are taking a lot of initiatives for the reduction of road accidents in the state, said the Minister in a written reply.
The year 2024 with 6,142 deaths recorded the highest number of human fatalities due to road accidents.
To address the rising death toll, the government has taken a series of measures to curb the drunken driving cases, unfit vehicles, cases of driving without license and traffic management, said the minister.
The rising fatality graph has become a cause of grave concern given the fact that the Supreme Court had earlier directed the States and Union Territories to reduce the fatalities by 10 percent every year. The road safety committees constituted in all the States by the Supreme Court had also issued directions for reduction of fatalities by 50 percent by 2020 taking the year 2014 as base.
To reduce the rate of road accidents, the State Government has initiated a series of multi-layered initiatives across the State. These include community-level dialogues under the banner of “Cha Au Charcha” near accident-prone zones, training of Sahayaks and Raahveers as first responders, awareness sessions for school children to nurture them as future safe drivers, specialized training for drivers working in mining and industrial areas, and public messaging through All India Radio programs, among other activities designed to promote road safety awareness at scale, said an official of Commerce and Transport Department.