Road accidents lead to the death of many people every year in Mumbai. However, to prevent road accidents by tree-fall in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is taking a vital step. The civic body has started a drive to cut down branches of overgrown trees in the city and suburban areas.
The BMC officials said that all the overgrown branches and trees near flyovers or arterial roads will be chopped. Often these overgrown branches fall over the main path or spots of the road due to which drivers who travel at high speed crash on them. Many times such road accidents also lead to driver’s death.
By December 17, all of the branches will have been removed thanks to a special trimming drive that has already been started. The initiative is being executed at the ward level, with local work being supervised by tree inspectors in each of the 24 municipal wards.
In the ongoing Parliament Winter Session, Mumbai Congress President and MLA Varsha Gaikwad slammed the state government over road accidental deaths in Mumbai. She accused the Maharashtra government of not taking any appropriate action to prevent road accidents in Mumbai.
371 people died as a result of 1,895 road accidents in Mumbai last year.
Gaikwad further referring to these numbers questioned what steps will the administration take to keep the city roads accident-free. There are traffic rules but they are not implemented at many places, and this also leads to road accidents at several places.
The Congress MLA said that numerous locations have narrow or small roads, which leads to several detours. Numerous accidents result from drivers' ignorance. Certain places are more likely to have accidents than others. However, the administration isn't giving it any thought. Stricter regulations and harsher fines and penalties for breaking traffic laws are required in order to lower the number of road accidents.
To implement traffic rules there are very few RTO and traffic police staff in the city. Many posts in RTO and Traffic Police are vacant at the moment. Gaikwad questioned that when will the government hire employees.
The Congress MLA posted a video of her in which she is seen demanding stricter enforcement of road safety rules and regulations, on X (formerly twitter).
Rising accidents on Mumbai roads is a serious concern. In the Vidhan Sabha today, demanded stricter enforcement of road safety rules and regulations. There is an urgent need to identify accident black spots and adopt rectification measures to reduce the number of accidents. Also… pic.twitter.com/niGB2XVB8Y
— Prof. Varsha Eknath Gaikwad (@VarshaEGaikwad) December 12, 2023
In response, Minister Dada Bhuse of Maharashtra gave the assurance that plans for vehicle auto testing had been created. He said money from the DPDC has been set aside to locate and fix blind places where accidents happen frequently. The government will investigate ways to lower the number of accidents. Violators who disregard the laws governing lane discipline, speed restrictions, and vehicle strength will face severe consequences.
Apart from Mumbai other parts of the state too face similar issues on roads. The state with the second highest number of crash-related deaths from speeding is Maharashtra, where road fatalities rose 13% in 2022 compared to the previous year. The most recent NCRB statistics state that in 2022, there were 15,748 fatalities on state highways, up from 13,911 in 2021.
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