PANAJI
Three accidents in three days -- two of them fatal -- have thrown a harsh light on a pattern that officials do not formally track but also cannot ignore: the growing presence of young drivers and riders on both sides of deadly crashes. The State admits it does not maintain age-wise or gender-wise data of offenders.
“The gender-wise and age-wise details are not maintained,” a traffic officer said, even as recent cases are being increasingly seen as a youth-driven risk on the roads.
The latest fatalities and injuries read like a grim sequence. On Wednesday, 27-year-old Suchita Bandekar, an assistant professor, was killed on the spot after a car driving on the wrong side rammed her two-wheeler head-on at Mashem-Canacona. Hours earlier, on the Burmar-Agonda stretch, a young woman riding while using her mobile phone crashed into an oncoming scooter, leaving both riders injured and hospitalised.
On the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, a 23-year-old pillion rider, Diksha Parwarkar, was killed in Dona Paula after a newly purchased Mini Cooper, still bearing a temporary registration and ceremonial ribbon, hit the two-wheeler from behind with such force that the bike was flung over 50 metres. The driver, 22-year-old Darius Myles Dias, was arrested, with sources stating his driving license has not been suspended yet.
Barely weeks earlier, in February, another case raised similar questions when a 19-year-old from Delhi, Shaurya Goyal, allegedly lost control of a rented SUV and rammed into a car at Assagao, killing a 65-year-old man. The FIR described the vehicle being driven “in a rash and negligent manner without proper care and caution, endangering human life.”
The recurrence of youth at the centre of these cases, whether as drivers, riders, or victims, stands in contrast to the absence of official data capturing that trend. What is available instead points to a broader escalation in risky behaviour on the roads.
Cases of dangerous or reckless driving have declined on paper -- from 2,351 in 2023 to 1,658 in 2025, but overspeeding violations have surged sharply, rising from 12,914 in 2023 to 23,648 in 2025. In January 2026 alone, 3,957 cases of overspeeding were recorded.
Between January 1, 2022, and January 31, 2026, Goa recorded 2,176 road accidents. A significant number of deaths have occurred in self-accidents, accounting for 396 lives lost, while accidents involving multiple vehicles claimed 352 lives during the same period. This year so far, the count of accidents is over 250.
Two-wheeler riders remain the most exposed as 657 bikers have died since 2022, with fatalities recorded every year and continuing into 2026.
Officials in the Traffic Department have justified the cases, stating enforcement has been intensified through checkpoints, surprise drives, and deployment at accident-prone zones. “Strict enforcement of traffic laws is carried out,” an official said, listing awareness campaigns in schools and colleges, road safety patrols, and the use of modern enforcement gadgets among the measures being implemented.
