Bad roads killed over 10k people in 2015; 3,416 deaths due to potholes

NEW DELHI: Last year, 10,727 people were killed in crashes caused by potholes, speed breakers and roads that were under repair or being constructed. Although the overall fatalities under these categories had come down marginally from 2014 , the number of people killed due to potholes rose to 3,416, from 3,039 in the previous year.
Deaths caused by potholes saw a massive seven-fold increase in Maharashtra in 2015, according to the surface transport ministry’s road accidents report.A rise in such fatalities indicates failure of road-owning agencies to maintain stretches.
Interestingly, Uttar Pradesh, known for its bad roads , reported an almost 50% reduction in pothole deaths as compared with 2014. In Delhi, where a man died after his motorcycle got stuck in a pothole on Saturday, showed only two pothole deaths in 2015.
According to data compiled by the road transport ministry , 10,876 accidents were reported last year due to potholes across the country. “The number could be higher as we don’t have a robust and scientific mechanism for collecting data. Many accidents go unreported and there is no detailed investigation into causes of road deaths in our country,” said Ashish Kumar, former chief of the transport research wing.
Top road engineers working with government departments said until the drainage system in cities and towns was improved, roads would keep developing potholes.
“Every city and town has a multiplicity of authorities and in most cases, both the sewerage and storm water drainage system are inadequate and inefficient. Drains have been covered with unauthorised construction. So, you have flooding on roads. Any amount of repair won’t work if you have stagnant water and overloaded vehicles plying on such stretches,” a state public works department official said.
To make road owning agencies and traffic police accountable for failure on their part, the road transport ministry has finalised the Rules of Road Regulation, which spells out the responsibility. It specially mentions that if someone dies due to negligence of a road agency, the agency would be held responsible. It says “wilful negligence/dereliction of duty on part of road owning and maintenance agencies” shall be considered an offence.