NEW DELHI: The Punjab Police catching the driver involved in marathon runner Fauja Singh’s death case within days has kicked off a debate why police across states can’t nab absconding drivers, instead classifying these cases as “hit and run” and making no headway in them. Analysis of the NCRB data of 2022 (the latest published report) show that in 125 police districts, 100% of all deaths due to “negligence relating to road accidents” causing deaths were put under the “hit and run” category.
This trend was across most of the states and UTs, including two police districts in Delhi, NCR cities of Ghaziabad and Meerut, Dehradun, Nainital, Mathura, Agra, Gwalior, Ujjain, Jodhpur, Bokaro, Jalandhar Rural and Nagpur police commissionerate, raising questions over the quality of data and reports that police put in file in case of road accidents.
Traffic safety experts and former senior police officers told TOI that it’s high time govt reviews how data in road crashes and deaths are collected and their sanctity. “It’s simply not possible that all deaths due to negligent driving are hit and run cases. In almost all states it’s the junior most person officially records road accidents and writes the FIR. The mechanism to audit the data before sending to the NCRB or publishing is weak. Such reports hardly serve any purpose,” said a former senior Delhi police officer.
On the most probable reason for recording most cases as hit and run, an expert said once such a case is registered and concluded weeks after the incident, police hardly carry out an investigation.He added that in several cases, both parties also reach a compromise and the victims’ kin get the compensation from govt rather than pursuing the case.
The data published by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that nearly 85% of all 384 road deaths due to negligence (section 304A of earlier IPC) in Uttarakhand were recorded as hit and run. In the case of Uttar Pradesh, this was recorded as the reason in 16,343 road fatalities out of 20,109 death cases that police registered under earlier IPC section. Out of its 78 police districts, 47 had reported all road fatalities under hit and run.
It was no different even in the case of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand where more than 55% of road deaths registered under 304A of IPC were due to negligent driving. While in MP, 15 police districts had all deaths registered under hit and run, in the case of Jharkhand there were eight such police districts. However, there were some exceptions as well. States such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal where no police district recorded all road crash deaths as hit and run cases, as per NCRB.
This trend was across most of the states and UTs, including two police districts in Delhi, NCR cities of Ghaziabad and Meerut, Dehradun, Nainital, Mathura, Agra, Gwalior, Ujjain, Jodhpur, Bokaro, Jalandhar Rural and Nagpur police commissionerate, raising questions over the quality of data and reports that police put in file in case of road accidents.
Traffic safety experts and former senior police officers told TOI that it’s high time govt reviews how data in road crashes and deaths are collected and their sanctity. “It’s simply not possible that all deaths due to negligent driving are hit and run cases. In almost all states it’s the junior most person officially records road accidents and writes the FIR. The mechanism to audit the data before sending to the NCRB or publishing is weak. Such reports hardly serve any purpose,” said a former senior Delhi police officer.
On the most probable reason for recording most cases as hit and run, an expert said once such a case is registered and concluded weeks after the incident, police hardly carry out an investigation.He added that in several cases, both parties also reach a compromise and the victims’ kin get the compensation from govt rather than pursuing the case.
The data published by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that nearly 85% of all 384 road deaths due to negligence (section 304A of earlier IPC) in Uttarakhand were recorded as hit and run. In the case of Uttar Pradesh, this was recorded as the reason in 16,343 road fatalities out of 20,109 death cases that police registered under earlier IPC section. Out of its 78 police districts, 47 had reported all road fatalities under hit and run.
It was no different even in the case of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand where more than 55% of road deaths registered under 304A of IPC were due to negligent driving. While in MP, 15 police districts had all deaths registered under hit and run, in the case of Jharkhand there were eight such police districts. However, there were some exceptions as well. States such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal where no police district recorded all road crash deaths as hit and run cases, as per NCRB.
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