In October last year Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan, Dombivli, Bhiwandi and rural parts of Thane saw around 589 new vehicles hitting the road of which 385 were two-wheelers. Around 7.18 lakh two-wheelers were registered by the RTO till Deccember 2006, however, by October the number rose by around 72 lakh, taking the figure to 7.90 lakh two-wheelers.

With the rise in number of vehicles, even the number of cases of accidents has gone up, especially in the Thane commissionerate comprising four cities — Bhiwandi, Ulhasnagar, Kalyan and Dombivli and two towns, Badlapur and Ambernath. Last year saw some 2,028 cases of accidents in which 281 persons lost their lives while 1,521 people were injured. Of those who died, 117 were pedestrians while 108 were motorcyclists.

Interestingly, the rural Thane saw a marginal drop in the accident rate. In 2006 some 3,261 cases of accidents were registered in which 571 people lost their lives while in 2007 the number went down and 3,214 accident cases were registered in which 507 people lost their lives.