Sunday, 13 Oct, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
A total of 4,03,116 ‘road accidents’ were reported in 2021, resulting in 3,51,884 injuries and 1,55,622 fatalities. Majority (59.7%) of the road accidents occurred due to over speeding accounting for 87,050 deaths and injuries to 2,28,274 persons.
According to the latest NCRB released report on accidental deaths in India, the deaths due to road accidents increased by 16.8 %. The deaths ascended from 1,33,201 in 2020 to 1,55,622 in 2021. 4,22,659 ‘Traffic Accidents’ in total, including 4,03,116 ‘Road Accidents,’ 1,550 ‘Railway Crossing Accidents,’ and 17,993 ‘Railway Accidents,’ were reported throughout the year. 3,73,884 people were injured in traffic accidents, while 1,73,860 people lost their lives.
A total of 4,03,116 ‘road accidents’ were reported in 2021, resulting in 3,51,884 injuries and 1,55,622 fatalities. Majority (59.7%) of the road accidents occurred due to over speeding accounting for 87,050 deaths and injuries to 2,28,274 persons. Dangerous/careless driving or overtaking contributed to 25.7% road accidents which resulted in 42,853 deaths and 91,893 persons injured. Besides, the poor weather conditions were the reason for only 2.8% of road accidents. The majority of road accidents (81,410 out of 4,03,116 cases) occurred between 18:00 hrs and 21:00 hrs (night), comprising nearly 20.2% of all traffic accidents. The majority of road accidents between 18:00 hrs and 21:00 hrs were reported in Tamil Nadu (14,415 occurrences), Madhya Pradesh (9,798 cases), and Kerala (6,765 cases).
The road accidents occurred on different types of roads from district roads, city roads, village roads and state highways to national highways but the latter contributed the most to the road accidents. The National Highways, which comprise only 2.1% of all roads in India (1.33 lakh km out of 63.9 lakh km) accounted for 30.3% of all accidents, having the highest rate of accidents.
Tamil Nadu reported the largest rise in traffic accident cases between 2020 and 2021 (from 46,443 to 57,090), followed by Madhya Pradesh (from 43,360 to 49,493), Uttar Pradesh (from 30,593 to 36,509), Maharashtra (from 24,908 to 30,086), and Kerala (from 27,998 to 33,051).
In general, road accidents result in more injuries than deaths, but this was not the case with Mizoram, Punjab, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh, as road accidents resulted in more deaths than injuries in these states.
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
Among all the vehicles, the two wheelers had the highest share in the deaths due to road accidents in 2021. The two wheelers had 44.50% share in total deaths caused due to road accidents. Two wheelers claimed highest number of lives (around 70,000) in 2021. Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh reported majority of deaths due to two wheeler accidents. Tamil Nadu reported 8259 deaths (11%) and Uttar Pradesh reported 7429 deaths (10.3%) of the total deaths due to two wheelers.
SUV/Jeep/Cars ranked on second position as they had a share of around 15% in road accidents in the previous year. Uttar Pradesh reported the maximum number of deaths due to SUV, Jeep and car accidents. It reported 4039 (17.2%) deaths due to SUV/Jeep/Cars in 2021.
