‘207 killed in road accidents in 2015’

SHILLONG: The number of road accident is on the rise and fatal road accidents have become the order of the day in the state much to concern of everyone.
Meghalaya Police statistics reveals that 572 road accidents took place in the year 2015 in which 207 people died while 763 people were injured, adding the statistics says most of the accidents took place on National Highways and State Highways.
The statistics also said in the year 2015, 149 accidents occurred near the residential areas in rural areas where as 118 accidents took place in other urban areas followed by 70 accidents near residential areas even in urban areas.
Rash driving, over-taking, carelessness were the reasons for 213 road accident in the same year and over speeding was the reason in 123 cases besides there were 41  road accidents in which people were driving under the influence of liquor.
According to statistics, trucks and lorries were the most common offending vehicles involved in the road accidents and 79 people were killed in the road accidents involving the mentioned vehicles.
Similarly, 47 people were killed in those road accidents which involved normal goods carriers.
The number of road accidents has shown a steady increase in the last few years and the number of road accidents in the year 2014 was only 301.
Almost half of the accidents (49 %) took place in the East Khasi Hills District in the same year.
While many say that the road accidents have increased due to reckless driving, many also believe that it is time when Meghalaya police should use more sophisticated machines and equipments to keep a check on speed of vehicles.
The menace of over speeding and reckless driving is also quite common especially at night when traffic personnel’s are not to be found on the road.
It may be mentioned that 19 people were also killed recently at a village near Nongstoin when a speeding truck fell into a gorge besides three people were charred to death when an oil tanker lost its control at Shillong Bye pass.