Centre asks States to identify accident-prone spots

News:The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued guidelines to States for identifying accident ‘black spots’ on national highways and rectifying them.

Facts:

About Black spots:

• A black spot is defined as a stretch not more than 500m in length where five accidents have taken place or where ten fatalities have happened in the last three years.
• Black spots account for 90% of road accidents in the country.
• Hence,the measures chalked out by the government to curb accidents in such spots assumes significance.

Additional information:

Statistics on Road accidents:

• According to the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways data,road accidents in India has killed around 1.5 lakh people every year between 2015 and 2017.
• This works out to a daily average of 400 or more deaths in each of the three years.
• Further,World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Global Status report on Road Safety has also stated that road accidents are the leading cause of death among people in the 5-29 age-group worldwide.
• According to the report,India might be losing 2,99,000 people each year due to road accidents.