Year after year, citizens have raised concerns over road engineering in the state, which especially becomes a topic of discussion after heavy rainfall leavesroadspothole ridden or submerged in water, as in Guirim at present. Data from the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) shows that the citizens apprehensions are not misplaced.The nature of roads is the cause of nearly a third of theaccidentsthat occur in Goa, the MoRTH report said.

s many as 1,244 accidents took place on national highways. According to MoRTHs records, these national highways are being looked after by the state public works department (PWD) and are not under the jurisdiction of the National Highways Authority of India.

A third or 107 of the 297 road accident deaths reported in 2019 in Goa occurred on national highways, even though the has begun work of expansion and apparent improvement of highways across the length and breadth of Goa in 2016.

According to the MoRTH report, during 2019, 3,440 road accidents were reported in Goa 283 of them were fatal accidents, where 297 persons lost their lives.

Though in 2019, the total number of accidents in Goa were down by over 250 since 2018, the number of persons who lost their lives in fatal accidents were up in 2019 by 13.4%.
Besides, the 283 fatal accidents, grievous injuries were reported in 196 cases.

The MoRTH report shows that in very few of the accident cases in Goa, weather was responsible for the ill-event.

]This indicates that road conditions or road users not following safety measures were the top causes for road accidents in Goa.

Most of the accidents in Goa or 3,131 occurred in clear weather, causing 276 deaths. In comparison, 21 road accident deaths took place during rainy weather. Foggy vision was not reported as cause of any accident or fatality.

Majority of the accidents reported in Goa involved two-wheeler riders and those riding pillion leading to 1,757 accidents and death of 186 persons.