Thiruvananthapuram: The day the world has kept aside as Remembrance Day for Road Traffic Victims, eight lives were reported lost in multiple accidents on Kerala roads.

Of the eight deaths on the state’s roads on Sunday, three were in a car-bus smash at Ponnani in north Kerala. The deceased were three car passengers identified as Ahmed Faizal, Subaida and Naufal. Their co-passenger, Noushad, has been admitted to hospital with serious injuries.

The accident occurred past midnight on Saturday, when the victims were returning home after a visit to a relative’s home.

A dozen deaths daily

Kerala loses nearly a dozen lives each day, with a total of 4,303 deaths reported in road accidents in 2018.

What is equally significant is the number of people who sustained serious injuries in traffic accidents in the state.

Last year, their number was 45,458, or about 125 each day. Many of them are confined to bed for years together and sometimes lifelong, putting serious social and financial pressure on the families concerned.

One of those who died in a road accident last year was popular violinist and singer, Balabhaskar. A good number of road accidents happen between midnight and dawn. Balabhaskar was also killed in a mishap that occurred in the pre-dawn hours.

New laws, low adherence

The federal government introduced more stringent traffic rules from September 1 which includes heavy fines for violations including two-wheeler riding without helmets and travelling without seat belts in cars. There are also steep fines for using mobile phones while driving.

However, traffic violations continue to be rampant in Kerala as well as the rest of India.

This year, too, Kerala is poised to lose over 4,000 lives in traffic accidents. From January to October this year, 3,629 lives have been lost according to data generated by the Kerala Road Safety Authority.

A national problem

India’s road fatalities touched an all-time high of 151,000 in 2018, which was an increase of roughly 3,500 deaths than in the previous year.

Uttar Pradesh topped Indian states in the number of road deaths, with a count of 22,256 in 2018. Kerala’s 4,000-plus deaths on roads last year does not compare favourably with that of UP, considering that Kerala has only about a seventh of UP’s population.

Besides UP, other Indian states that report more than 10,000 road deaths a year include Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.