Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
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. Image Source: IANS
According to a senior police official, the 42-person private bus was travelling from Pune to Mumbai when it crashed between 4.15 and 4.30 am into the 300-foot-deep gorge in the Bor Ghat mountain pass section, also known as Khandala Ghat.
According to authorities, a bus carrying young male and female members of a traditional 'Dhol-Tasha-Zaanj' music troupe plunged down into a gorge on the old Mumbai-Pune highway in the Raigad district of Maharashtra on Sunday, killing 13 people, three of whom were kids, and injuring 29 others. According to a senior police official, the 42-person private bus was travelling from Pune to Mumbai when it crashed between 4.15 and 4.30 am into the 300-foot-deep gorge in the Bor Ghat mountain pass section, also known as Khandala Ghat. The accident took place near Khopoli, 70 km from Mumbai. One of the deceased was a 12-year-old boy and at least six of those hurt are children. Most of the music troupe members were in their twenties or teens. The group, which performed on traditional Dhol, Tasha, and Zaanj instruments, was travelling back to Mumbai after taking part in an event in the Pimpri Chinchwad area near Pune.
Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, visited the injured passengers and promised a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the deceased. The rescue operation was soon launched after the accident when a team of local police, members from a trekking group and officials of the IRB Company rushed to the spot. The injured were rescued and admitted to different hospitals nearby. Some of them were admitted to Mahatma Gandhi Mission (MGM) Hospital in Panvel, Navi Mumbai, others were taken to a Government Hospital in Khopoli and a few were admitted in a private hospital. Somnath Gharge, Raigad Superintendent of Police said that most of the injured in the accident were from Goregaon and Sion in Mumbai and Virar in Palghar district.
Amit Shah, Union Home Minister, expressed grief over the incident. He had a conversation with CM Eknath Shinde and Maharashtra’s deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Droupadi Murmu also expressed grief over the tragedy. The Prime Minister’s Office in a tweet announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund to the relatives of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured.
The accident in Maharashtra’s Raigad has once again highlighted the rising number of road accidents in India. 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.
Source: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
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.
The government has been taking several steps to prevent the road accidents. One of the steps was an amendment in the Motor Vehicle Act in 2019. The Motor Vehicle Amendment Act, 2019 hikes the penalties for traffic violations, defective vehicles, juvenile driving, etc. It calls for the creation of a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, which would require all Indian road users to carry insurance coverage for certain types of accidents.
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.
