Road deaths in state: One life every 2 hours

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Bhubaneswar: On an average, 14 people lose their lives on Odisha roads every day due to accidents, according to the data submitted by the state government to the State Assembly Friday.
In a written reply to a question on road accidents in Odisha and the preparedness of the state government to tackle them, Transport Minister Nrusingha Charan Sahu said, a total of 5,315 persons lost their lives in 2018 alone which makes it an average of 14 deaths every day and 1.2 deaths every two hours. This is in sharp contrast to road accident deaths reported in 2008.
In the last one decade, there has been an increase of 72 per cent deaths on roads in the state due to accidents. In 2008, the deaths reported were 3,079 which saw a 72.62 per cent rise in 2018 leading to 5,315 fatalities. The data hinted that the magnitude of the problem has been increasing in the last one decade with minor fluctuations.
On the other hand, the total number of accidents in Odisha has also shown an increasing trend with a total rise of 38 per cent in the last 10 years. While the total number of accidents recorded in 2008 stood at 8184, it went up to 11,262 in 2018.
The data on the total number of road accidents in Odisha reveals that on an average 30 accidents are reported every day while 1.2 cases are reported each hour in the state.
The minister, in his reply, cited several measures taken by the government to prevent accidents in the state. Sahu listed speed detection radars, breath analyser machines, retro reflective tapes for increasing visibility at night, implementation of Good Samaritan policy, student traffic control among the initiatives.