In hit-and-run incidents that caused 55% pedestrian deaths in Delhi, vehicles not traced: Data

A senior officer said, “In several instances, the number plate on a vehicle is difficult to trace as it has been damaged or modified… Due to this, CCTV cameras or even the traffic police’s RLVD (red-light violation detection) or OSVD (over-speeding violation detection) cameras are often not able to capture what is written on the number plate.”

Another officer said that the lack of enough eyewitnesses also poses a huge roadblock. “Most incidents take place late at night due to which there are not many eyewitnesses around. Those who did see something, if they cannot properly recall the registration number or the colour or make of a vehicle as it was dark, it can pose a problem while deposing in court.”

A traffic inspector said that often, there are black spots in a place that are not covered by CCTV cameras. “There have been cases where a vehicle fled an area where not enough CCTV cameras were present to capture the built or to retrace its route… Manual intelligence such as eyewitness statements is used in such cases, which takes time,” the inspector added.

“There are not enough traffic officers deployed at late hours, which can also be one of the issues why a quick solution is not found in cases,” another officer said.

S Velmurugan, Chief Scientist and Head of the Traffic Engineering and Safety Division of Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said, “Most accidents take place during non-peak hours when there is no traffic congestion and, hence, there are no eyewitnesses. This is one of the reasons why offending vehicles remain untraced.” He added that more engineering interventions are needed in the form of road markings to guide drivers and prevent accidents.

Based on surveys conducted in areas that report a high number of accidents, the Delhi Traffic Police and the Public Works Department (PWD) have installed adequate RLVD and OSVD cameras, senior officers said.

Amit Bhatt, India Managing Director of the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), said: “Accident cases are medico-legal cases. So, we should understand the cause… for instance, if the accident was caused due to potholes or bad infrastructure…”

A transport department official said around 5,000 CCTV cameras are set to be installed at traffic junctions under the Intelligent Traffic Management System project. “Tenders have been floated. Once the process is complete, installation will start… The main objective is to increase surveillance and curb traffic offences.”

The cameras will be high-tech, having an in-built Automatic Number Plate Recognition system, which will catch 16 traffic violations, the official added.