Yamuna expressway accidents claim over 150 lives this year

NOIDA: According to an official data via a Right to Information (RTI) report filed by Krishna Chand Jain, an Agra based lawyer revealed that the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh witnessed over 150 deaths in road accidents in 2019 so far. It is the maximum death toll ever since it got operational in 2012.

The data showed that the 165-km-long road stretch connecting Delhi and Agra has witnessed 357 accidents, injuries to at least 822 people and death of 145 others till July 31, 2019. The year 2018 saw 659 road accidents, 1,388 injuries and 111 deaths, whereas, the year 2017 had witnessed 763 accidents, 1,426 injuries and 146 deaths on the expressway.

Data from the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA), which manages the expressway, showed that in 2016, the expressway witnessed 1,219 accidents, 1,524 injuries and 133 deaths, and in 2015, saw 919 accidents, 1,392 injuries and 142 deaths.

The YEIDA said that most of the accidents are caused because of over speeding or tyre busting.

As per YEIDA, it has taken multiple measures to reduce the increasing number of accidents and fatalities on the highway like limiting the maximum speed for cars and other small vehicles to 100 kmph and 60 kmph for trucks, buses and othr heavy vehicles.

YEIDA in response to Jain’s query on measures taken by it to check accidents said, “We have installed metal crash barriers in the median at suitable locations, rumble strips at regular intervals, retro-reflective warning boards, retro-reflective hazard boards, reflective road studs at railings, delineators as precautionary measures.”