The number of persons killed due to collisions with parked vehicles on roads in Delhi has more than doubled in the past three years – from 2,317 in 2017 to 5,086 last year. The state police departments started collating this data from 2017 onwards.
The increase in fatalities due to parked vehicles in the middle of a busy road have once again highlighted the dire need for a robust highway patrol or police system. A deadly accident on the national highway connecting Prayagraj and Lucknow in UP claimed 14 lives, including six children, after an SUV rammed a truck parked on the side of the highspeed corridor immobilised by a punctured tyre.
According to the road transport ministry’s Road Accidents in India’ report, UP reported maximum number of such deaths since collection of data under this head started. Last year, 1,223 people were killed in such crashes in UP. In 2018, the number of people killed in crashes with parked vehicles stood at 1,299. The data compiled on the basis of reports from state police shows that in 2018, Gujarat reported the second highest such fatalities (478) followed by Haryana (353). During 2019, Punjab reported the second highest number of such deaths (647) followed by Haryana (330).
