Thursday, 11 Sep, 2025
By: Yash Gupte
As compared to 2020, the number of road accidents rose by 17 percent in 2021, showing a rise in the rate of deaths per 1,000 vehicles in India. Image Source: IANS
Apart from the 11 dead, dozen others were injured in the accident when a pick-up van they were travelling in collided with a truck near Khamariya village under Bhatapara police station area on Balodabazar- Bhatapara road late Thursday night
Eleven people including four children were killed in a major road accident in Chhattisgarh’s Balodabazar- Bhatapara district on Thursday. Apart from the 11 dead, dozen others were injured in the accident when a pick-up van they were travelling in collided with a truck near Khamariya village under Bhatapara police station area on Balodabazar- Bhatapara road late Thursday night, police said. According to the police, the victims who were the natives of Khilora village in Simga area were returning home after attending a family function. According to the reports, the collision was so severe that the car was pulled out from the truck with the help of a JCB. The injured are currently undergoing treatment in a nearby hospital and the bodies of the dead have been sent for the postmortem.
The accident in Chhattisgarh’s Balodabazar- Bhatapara district has once again highlighted the rising number of road accidents in the country. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has recently published the annual report ‘Road accidents in India 2021’. The report provides information on various facets of road accidents in the country during the calendar year 2021. As compared to 2020, the number of road accidents rose by 17 percent in 2021, showing a rise in the rate of deaths per 1,000 vehicles in India. During the previous year 2020, country saw an unprecedented decrease in accidents, fatalities and injuries. This was due to the unusual outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and resultant stringent nation-wide lockdown particularly during March-April, 2020 followed by gradual unlocking and phasing out of the containment measures.
In 2021, around 1,53,972 people were killed in road accident cases. Around 4.12 lakh road accidents were reported - up from 3.54 lakh in 2020. Over half of all fatalities, 87,000 were caused by speeding, while 42,000 were blamed on reckless and unsafe driving. The number of people killed in car crashes has risen by 16.8 percent. (From 1,33,201 in 2020 to 1,55,622 in 2021). According to observations, the number of fatalities per 1,000 cars rose from 0.45 in 2020 to 0.53 in 2021.
During 2021 a total of 4,12,432 accidents were recorded, of which 1,42,163 (34.5 percent) were fatal accidents, 2,46,027 (59.7 percent) were injury (minor and grievous) causing accidents. Among injury causing accidents, 1,26,394 (30.6 percent) were grievous and 1,19,633 (29 percent) were minor injury causing accidents
Two-wheelers were involved in the most fatal road accidents in 2021 (69,240 fatalities), making up 44.5 percent of all deaths on the road, followed by cars (23,531 fatalities; 15.1 percent) and trucks/lorries (14,622 fatalities; 9.4 percent). The majority of two-wheeler-related killings were reported in Tamil Nadu (8,259 fatalities) and Uttar Pradesh (7,429 fatalities), accounting for 11.9 percent and 10.3 percent of all two-wheeler-related fatalities, respectively. However, there were a lot fewer accidents in 2021 as compared to 2019, when there were 4.37 lakh reported accidents and 1.54 lakh fatalities.
Two-wheelers (58,129 fatalities) contributed 43.6 percent of all fatal road accidents in 2020, followed by cars (17,538 fatalities) (13.2 percent) and trucks/lorries (16,993 fatalities) (12.8 percent). Between 2020 and 2021, Tamil Nadu reported the highest increase in the number of traffic accident cases (from 46,443 to 57,090), followed by Madhya Pradesh (from 43,360 to 49,493) and Uttar Pradesh (from 30,593 to 36,509). In 2018, around 1,52,780 people lost their lives in road accidents, out of 4,45,500 lakh accidents were reported.
In spite of certain measures and steps taken by the government to prevent accidents, the number of road accidents in India continue to rise every year claiming more and more number of lives.
