The Mumbai Traffic Police in collaboration with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) released the Mumbai Road Safety Report 2018 on Thursday. The report states that a total of 475 Mumbaikars lost their lives in 2018 in road accidents. Out of the 475, 243 are pedestrians, 194 motorcyclists, 32 three-and-four-wheeler passengers and six cyclists. On the contrary, deaths caused by BEST, private, school and luxury buses have been reduced by more than 50% from 2015 to 2018. While vulnerable motorcyclists as well as cyclists made up for 93% of the road crash deaths in the city last year, pedestrians continued to be the most affected, comprising 51% of the total deaths. Madhukar Pandey, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said road traffic fatalities have indicated a declining trend in Mumbai over the past few years. "The decline can be attributed to the evidence-based work and the four-way approach of enforcement, designing solutions, communication and publicity," said Pandey. "In collaboration with BIGRS, together we are moving forward to achieve India's commitment to reducing road crashes and deaths," added Pandey. Contrary to the popular belief of women drivers being labelled as callous and 'unsafe' drivers, the data found the male drivers at fault in most fatal crashes over the past four years. Moreover, the most numbers of deaths were among young men aged between 20-29 years, stated the report. Similarly, deaths by gender were similar to that of the previous years with the men accounting for 85% of deaths in a road crash. Dr Sara Whitehead, Public Health Consultant, working with Vital Strategies said, "The United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety aims to stabilise and reduce the forecast level of road traffic deaths around the world. Mumbai has reached 22% till 2018, while other parts of the world are even struggling to achieve that mark." "The city has had important success in reducing road traffic fatalities in the past five years and Vital Strategies, BIGRS look forward to continuing the partnership to save lives," Dr Whitehead added.

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