Health burden due to road accidents down in Ludhiana district

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, May 2

The health burden due to road accidents has come down in Ludhiana district in the past three years, a report has confirmed.

Ludhiana, the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population, ranked 13th in Punjab with 129 per million death rate due to road mishaps, the report on Punjab Road Accidents and Traffic-2020 has revealed.

Officialspeak

There are numerous catastrophic ramifications associated with road accidents, all of which have significant social economic and psychological consequences. Individuals, communities, societies and states are all affected by road traffic injuries and deaths. Amardeep Singh Rai, Additional Director General of Police, TRAFFIC

The report, which was brought out by a team of the Punjab Police, headed by the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Traffic, Amardeep Singh Rai, a copy of which is with The Tribune, showed that Ludhiana district’s health index due to road accidents dipped from 156 in 2018 to 129 in 2019 and further declined to 125 in 2020, which was, however, one point higher than the state’s average of 124.

The official data analysed by the Punjab Road Safety and Traffic Research Centre indicated that Ludhiana district lost 604 precious lives in road accidents in 2018, which came down to 508 in 2019 and further dipped to 499 in 2020.

To describe the health burden due to road mishaps in Punjab using a decentralised ranking approach, a district-wise analysis was performed on the road traffic fatalities.

Health burden due to road traffic is defined as a number of road accident fatalities against per million population.

While the road accident death rate against per million population in Punjab was 124 for the year 2020, Fatehgarh Sahib, Nawanshahr and Mohali districts recorded 1.5 to 1.7 times more casualties than the state average and ranked first, second and third in the state, respectively.

Ludhiana was among the nine districts in the state, which have shown a decline in the rankings of overall road casualties, while Moga and Faridkot districts have shown significant rise followed by Sangrur.

The district-wise health burden rankings revealed that Barnala ranked fourth with per million road accident death rate of 208 in 2018, 199 in 2019 and 174 in 2020; Ropar fifth with health burden of 285 in 2018, 246 in 2019 and 172 in 2020; Moga sixth with 164 in 2018, 133 in 2019 and 158 in 2020; Faridkot seventh with 172 in 2018, 156 in 2019 and 155 in 2020; Patiala eighth with 216 in 2018, 206 in 2019 and 151 in 2020; Bathinda ninth with 139 in 2018, 164 in 2019 and 141 in 2020; Kapurthala tenth with 193 in 2018, 191 in 2019 and 137 in 2020; Mansa eleventh with 143 in 2018, 141 in 2019 and 134 in 2020; Sangrur twelfth with 151 in 2018, 130 each in 2019 and 2020; Hoshairpur fourteenth with 150 in 2018, 151 in 2019 and 113 in 2020; Muktsar fifteenth with 125 in 2018, 161 in 2019 and 107 in 2020; Ferozepur sixteenth with 106 in 2018, 120 in 2019 and 103 in 2020; Fazilka seventeenth with 124 in 2018, 100 in 2019, and 99 in 2020; Jalandhar eighteenth with 149 in 2018, 139 in 2019 and 93 in 2020; Gurdaspur nineteenth with 108 in 2018, 93 in 2019 and 90 in 2020; Pathankot twentieth with 145 in 2018, 126 in 2019 and 86 in 2020; Tarn Taran twenty first with 86 in 2018, 88 in 2019 and 74 in 2020; and Amritsar ranked the twenty second district in the state with the minimum per million death rate due to road accidents of 98 in 2018, which further dipped to 93 in 2019 and finally declined to 66 in 2020.

Mohali ranks third

All 22 districts of Punjab were ranked 1 to 22. While two out of three districts falling in Ropar Police Range – Fatehgarh Sahib and Mohali – ranked first and third, respectively, with the highest death rate, Nawanshahr ranked second. Tarn Taran and Amritsar, the two border districts, remained the safest with the least fatality rate in the road accidents in the state.

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