Bengaluru roads more risky on weekends for motorists: Data

Udbhavi Balakrishna, Bengaluru, DHNS

There has been an rise in fatal accidents over weekends as opposed to other traffic-heavy days of the week in Bengaluru last year, data shows.

According to data by the Bengaluru Traffic Police, Saturdays and Sundays have seen the highest number of accidents, accounting for over 32% of the 883 fatal accidents last year. In comparison to 2022, fatalities on Sundays jumped from 115 to 152, whereas fatalities on Saturdays rose from 103 to 133, a hike of nearly 30%.

Although other days of the week have seen an average of 120 fatal accidents each in the past year, or about 2.3 fatalities every day, weekends seemed to be deadlier for vehicle users in the city. 

This is probably because city roads have lower traffic density on weekends as opposed to weekdays, allowing vehicle users to drive at higher speeds, noted Dr M S Gautham, additional professor of epidemiology, Centre for Public Health, Nimhans, who was also part of the team that put together the ‘Status Summary Report 2022: Road Safety Risk Factors’ released last year by Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit and Nimhans. 

The average speed of vehicles on Bengaluru’s roads stands at 18 kmph, according to Dutch traffic index TomTom. “During weekends, people are moving around for leisure activities and are thus less careful. Lesser traffic on the roads means people can travel at higher speeds. There are also multiple risk factors such as drunk-driving, drug use, rash driving involved,” he said.

A former senior police officer, who oversaw the northern parts of the city, noted that these accidents are also more common in rural pockets and on corridors like Kanakapura Road or Ballari Road that lead to the outskirts.

“People travelling out, especially during weekends, are less attentive to lane discipline and signboards, therefore increasing their risk of accidents that can be fatal if they are also speeding. There are also factors like unbuckling seat belts and taking off helmets after crossing the CBD area,” he noted.

Additionally, while the hours between 9 pm and 6 am see the highest number of fatal accidents each year, an interesting phenomenon observed last year was the spike in the number of such accidents between 3 pm and 6 pm. Compared to 2022, accidents in this period have seen a 48% increase.

However, the traffic police are unsure why this might be the case but point towards lower traffic density in the afternoon.

“Roads are relatively empty in the afternoons, which could be why more such accidents are reported. However, these numbers cannot be seen in isolation without the place of occurrence and type of road,” said Shiva Prakash Devaraju, deputy commissioner of police (Traffic South).