Friday, 17 May, 2024
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
According to the sources, the policemen involved in the accident fled the site. "The police rushed to the spot after receiving the information about the accident.
Haryana’s Gurugram witnessed a horrific accident as a police van collided with a vehicle carrying 6 people including a six-year-old child. A six-month-old child was killed and five people, including two children, and two women and the car driver sustained injuries in the accident that took place around 11 am yesterday on January 15, 2022. The injured were identified as Rinku (23), his son Priyank, sister Kajal, mother Babita, Kajal’s son Avi and six-month-old daughter saavi. The Emergency Response Vehicle was driving on the wrong side in the vicinity of the Gwal Pahari police station, according to the police. As soon as they had the information, police had already arrived at the scene. According to the sources, the policemen involved in the accident fled the site. "The police rushed to the spot after receiving the information about the accident.
According to Vikas Kaushik, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Gurugram, three policemen including the PCR van driver has been suspended. He also mentioned that departmental proceedings will be initiated against the driver, special police officer (SPO) and head constable in connection with the accident. According to Inspector Dinesh Kumar (SHO), DLF phase-1 police station, a FIR has been filed against the ERV driver under sections 279 (rash driving), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 304A (causing death by negligence), and 427 (causing damage) of the Indian Penal Code.
The Gurugram case 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.
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.
