25 December,2009 09:37 AM IST | | Kaumudi Gurjar
In the last three years, Pune has recorded 6,669 accidents, and has witnessed 1,275 deaths on the roads. Enough reason to panic, one would think.
With the city all geared up to party this New Year's eve, cops and hospital authorities fervently pray that the number of accidents are less as compared to last year (39 accidents between Dec 25-31).
According to the traffic department, areas like Kalyani Nagar, Viman Nagar, Koregaon Park, Chandni Chowk, Deccan and Shivaji Nagar area, are the accident prone zones, since there is a cluster of lounge and restaurants located in these areas.
Strict vigil
DCP Manoj Patil said, "Starting from today, we'll ensure that around 150 policemen including 30-35 officers of PI, API level and around 100 to 120 traffic cops are deployed in these areas during the night. This is because the maximum numbers of accidents happen between 11 pm and 4 am."
Patil added that the priority of action against traffic offenders' changes and, "More importance is given to cases against drunk driving, rash driving, signal jumping and lane cutting."
The Superintendent of Sassoon Hospital Dr P S Pawar said, "We ensure that we double the staff in the casualty section because there are almost 150 accident cases reported every year. The most common are head injuries, chest injuries and fracture cases.
The city fire brigade has five ambulances. Sanjay Mamane, station Duty Officer of Central Fire Brigade (helpline: 101), said, "We usually get 10-12 calls a day and the number of cases just double on December 31st."
Jehangir Hospital (helpline: 10066) gets 20 calls for its ambulance service and it doubles on December 31.
Dr Parag Sancheti, medical director of Sancheti Hospital, said, "It's a scary situation on December 31. On an average we get 20 to 25 cases.
60 per cent of accident cases are of two wheelers, and majority of them are of head injuries caused while driving after getting drunk." He added that the hospital will increase its staff by 30 per cent and no holidays are granted to theu00a0 staff on the year end."
