Himachal Pradesh: Over 95% accidents occur due to human error, says transport minister Govind Singh Thakur

SHIMLA: In Himachal Pradesh over 95% road accidents are taking place due to human error. Transport minister Govind Singh Thakur informed the state assembly on Wednesday that between August 1, 2015 and August 16 this year, 12,475 road accidents took place of which 11,859 road accidents (95.06%) occurred due to human error while only 616 (4.94%) accidents took place on account of road conditions.
The issue of road accidents was raised by Congress MLA from Shillai Harshvardhan Chauhan.
In reply, Govind Singh Thakur said that accident record of last three years reveals that in 2017 between January and August 1888 accidents took place across the state in which 779 people lost their lives.
He said that in between January and August of 2018, around 1937 road accidents occurred in which 754 people lost their lives while during the same period 1,753 road accidents had been recorded in which 688 people had been killed.
Compared to 2018, the accident and accidental death have been reduced at the rate of 9.49% and 8.70%, respectively.
Govind Singh Thakur said that beside human error, over-speeding is another major reason for road accidents as it had been found that 51.45% accidents occur due to over-speeding, 16.88% accidents took place due to carelessness at turning point, 9.58% accidents occurred due to dangerous driving, 6.4% accidents at the time of dangerous overtaking, 4.6% due to no respect for right of way rule, 3.89% accidents due to suspected drugs and alcohol, 1.51% due to changed lanes without care and 1.19% due to driving against the wrong side.
He said that the Himachal Road Transport Corporation had identified 169 vulnerable accident spots and joint inspection of these spots had been conducted and 55 spots were improved. He said that remaining 76 spots come under National Highways Authority of India, Border Roads Organisation and Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Development Authority.