PANJIM: There have been 1,589 road accidents on Goa roads in the first six months of this year, of which 509 are self-accidents. Out of these, 49 are fatal accidents and 51 persons have lost their lives, which is a worrisome trend, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP), Traffic Dharmesh Angle said.
“Self accident is a mishap that happens on your own and there is no need for another vehicle to be involved. In the first six months of this year one-third of the total accidents reported are self accidents, which means something is seriously wrong,” DySP Angle said.
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He was speaking at the weekly Herald TV debate programme Point-Counter Point.
The debate deliberated on the causes for such a high number of accidents in the State, despite having a very small population.
“The rise in the number of vehicles on Goa roads has proportionately increased the road accidents in the State. That doesn’t mean that fatalities on the road should increase because infrastructure on the road has seen a lot of improvement in the last few years. We now have got wider roads, new bridges. But there are some bottlenecks on the roads,” the officer said.
According to him, the commuters get held up in these bottlenecks and lose a lot of time. “It is then that they try to cover the lost time by overspeeding. That’s when accidents and road rage incidents occur. We are coming down heavily on errant drivers. We have increased the fine amount. Let’s see how things go from here,” he said.
