Over-speeding accounted for 71.2% of deaths | Not wearing seat belts claimed 16,715 lives in accidents
Agencies/JK News Today
New Delhi, Nov, 01:The number of road accidents in India and the resultant deaths have risen alarmingly by 12 per cent and 9.4 per cent, respectively, in 2022, according to a report by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). A total of 4.6 lakh road accidents occurred in 2022, claiming 1.68 lakh lives, said the report, ‘Road accidents in India–2022’.
Over-speeding major killer
Over-speeding accounted for 71.2% of deaths
‘Hit from back’ accounted for largest share in total accident deaths, followed by ‘hit-and-run’ and ‘head-on collision’
Not wearing seat belts claimed 16,715 lives in accidents
‘Driving on the wrong side’ second-highest cause of total road accidents
Drunken driving, red-light jumping and use of mobile phones accounted for just 7.4% of total accidents
This means that 19 persons died in 53 road accidents every hour in the country.
Besides the 1.68 lakh deaths, 4.43 lakh people were injured during 2022.
A bulk of the victims were young adults in the age group of 18-45 years (66.5 per cent), while the working age group of 18-60 years formed 83.4 per cent of total road accident fatalities. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has set a target to reduce the number of accidents in the country and the resulting deaths by half by 2024.
Compared with 1.68 lakh deaths in 2022, 15,000 fewer people had died in 2021.
It is illustrative that 44 per cent of the accidents took place on ‘other roads’ whereas 32.9 per cent on national highways, including expressways, and 23.1 per cent on state highways. Two-wheelers accounted for the highest share in total accidents and fatalities during 2022, while light vehicles such as cars, jeeps and taxis together came distant second. The number of persons killed in road accidents was the highest in Uttar Pradesh, while Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents on national highways. UP was followed by TN in the number of fatalities due to road accidents.
