Bhubaneswar: The regular lockdowns and shutdowns to contain the spread of COVID-19, during which people are mostly remaining indoors, has resulted in a 65 per cent decline in road accident deaths in Odisha.
As per the latest road accident deaths data of the State Transport Authority (STA), deaths due to road accidents during the lockdown period between March 24 and May 31, witnessed a steep fall.
"During the above lockdown period, 384 persons died and 722 persons got injured in 836 road accidents. During the corresponding period of 2019, 1087 persons had died and 2175 persons got injured in 2107 number of road accidents," said STA.
During the month of April, the number of deaths stood at 118, against 458 for the same month in 2019 - a decline of 74 per cent. Total 231 road accidents were reported in April against 877 in April 2019.
During May, the number of deaths stood at 243, against 491 in May 2019, registering a decline of about 51 per cent. Similarly, a total of 551 road accidents were reported in May this year against 953 in May last year, the transport authority added.
Odisha Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera had earlier said that the State witnessed a significant reduction in the number of road accidents and fatalities since the implementation of the amended Motor Vehicles (MV) Act across the country from September 1, 2019.
The number of road accidents have gone down by 355 (a reduction of 9.93 per cent) and deaths by 201 (-12.29 per cent) between September and December in 2019 in comparison to the same period in 2018, he had said.
While 3573 accidents occurred between September and December in 2018, 1635 persons lost their lives and 3910 persons were injured. Besides, the State registered 3218 road accidents between September and December 2019 in which 1434 persons died and 3330 injured.
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