Drowsy drivers caused 40% deaths on Yamuna E-way | Lucknow News - Times of India
Source: The Times of India
Author: Arvind Chauhan
LUCKNOW: An average 110 casualties are recorded every year on the 165-km high-speed Yamuna Expressway that links Greater Noida with Agra.
Ever since it was inaugurated in 2012, maximum deaths were caused because exhausted drivers dozed off while cruising on the stretch which has 100 kmph speed limit for LMVs.
An RTI reply by Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) has revealed that between 2012 and 2023, there were 1,321 deaths, 11,168 injuries and 7,625 accidents on the expressway.As many as 3,364 accidents occurred because people dozed off while driving. Of these 522 died. The RTI query was filed by Agra-based road safety activist and Supreme Court lawyer Kishan Chand Jain.
YEIDA's data reveals that the second biggest factor of 293 casualties on the expressway was negligent driving, followed by 201 deaths due to over-speeding. In 12 years, the expressway registered over 23.21 crore vehicular movement. But it also witnessed 90 deaths in 781 road accidents caused by tyre burst and 266 drunken driving accidents which killed 89 people.
It is clear from the data that drowsiness is killing a lot more people than anything else on Yamuna Expressway. A road safety policy should be introduced based on this data. Govt must bring a law to ascertain how many hours a person should be behind a steering wheel in 24 hours. It's astonishing that YEIDA maintains such categorised data, but the annually published report of the ministry of road transport and highways does not follow such format. The central govt must improve the system of collecting road accident data for better road safety policy, or I will move a PIL petition in apex court compelling MoRTH to take appropriate steps," said Jain.
Arbab Ahmad, a Lucknow-based road safety expert, said: "UP has provided direct road connectivity infrastructure connecting east to west, but drivers are not acting responsibly. If we calculate the total distance between Purvanchal Expressway, Lucknow-Agra expressway, and Yamuna expressway, it's around 810 km. Neither the people traveling in cars, nor bus transport service providers, especially the private ones, are taking sufficient rest in the journey. They feel overconfident about their driving skills, which is dangerous."
Between 2012 and 2016, the total deaths on Yamuna Expressway due to drivers dozing off was 146, but from 2017 to 2023, it is has risen to 376.
It is clear from the data that drowsiness is killing a lot more people than anything else on Yamuna Expressway. A road safety policy should be introduced based on this data. Govt must bring a law to ascertain how many hours a person should be behind a steering wheel in 24 hours. It's astonishing that YEIDA maintains such categorised data, but the annually published report of the ministry of road transport and highways does not follow such format. The central govt must improve the system of collecting road accident data for better road safety policy, or I will move a PIL petition in apex court compelling MoRTH to take appropriate steps," said Jain.
Arbab Ahmad, a Lucknow-based road safety expert, said: "UP has provided direct road connectivity infrastructure connecting east to west, but drivers are not acting responsibly. If we calculate the total distance between Purvanchal Expressway, Lucknow-Agra expressway, and Yamuna expressway, it's around 810 km. Neither the people traveling in cars, nor bus transport service providers, especially the private ones, are taking sufficient rest in the journey. They feel overconfident about their driving skills, which is dangerous."
Between 2012 and 2016, the total deaths on Yamuna Expressway due to drivers dozing off was 146, but from 2017 to 2023, it is has risen to 376.
Arvind Chauhan is an experienced journalist with a demonstrated history of working in the newspapers industry as well as for the social media wing as digital content creator. He has covered subjects like railways, aviation, defence, energy, health, real estate, minority affairs, women and child development, crime, customs, telecom, district court, district administration, roads and infrastructure, armed forces tribunal, and regional politics across Uttar Pradesh. He began his career in Lucknow, and has done reporting in West Uttar Pradesh. He has won the Times Scribe Award four times including for busting fake news, and extensive coverage on Covid orphans. He graduated with a journalism degree from Times School of Journalism and BA (Honors) in English from Lucknow University.