Noida hit-and-run case once again shows how unsafe our roads are

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.

The hit and run spree in northern India continues as a Swiggy delivery agent died after a car hit his two-wheeler and dragged him for about 500 metres. The incident happened on New Year's Eve while Kaushal Yadav, a Swiggy employee (an online platform for food delivery), was out making a delivery. A car hit his two-wheeler near a flyover in Noida Sector-14. According to police, the four-wheeler dragged him 500 metres. According to eyewitnesses, the driver stopped the car near a temple, roughly 500 metres from the scene of the collision, and took off after Kaushal's body came off. Kaushal’s family got to know about his death after his brother called him on his mobile phone around 1 am on Monday and a passerby received the call informing him about the accident.

The police stated that a case had been filed based on a complaint made by Kaushal's brother and that an investigation was in progress. They continued, "We are examining the CCTVs deployed in the neighbourhood to trace the accused." A 20-year-old lady in Delhi was struck by a car and dragged for about 13 kilometres just hours before to this incident. The nation was shocked on the first day of the New Year when Anjali Singh's naked body was later found on the highway with numerous injuries.

Considering the two shocking instances on the New Year’s Eve, India Tracker takes a look at the 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. These statistics were found in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway’s annual report titled- ‘Road accidents in India 2021.’ The report provides information on various facets of road accidents in the country during the calendar year 2021.

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. 

According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD) system has been developed for reporting, management, claim processing and analysis of road accidents data to enhance road safety in the Country.