In 4 yrs, road fatalities see a 7% rise
NEW DELHI: Data released by the ministry of road transport and highway on Tuesday has revealed that deaths due to road accidents have increased by 7% from 1,37,572 in 2013 to 1,47,913 in 2017. However, there has been a 4.63 % decline in the total number of accidents from 4,86,476 in 2013 to 4,64,910 in 2017.
“Road traffic injuries continue to be the one of the leading causes of death, disabilities and hospitalisation in the country despite our commitment and efforts to bring down the number of road accidents and fatalities,” secretary road transport and highways Yudhvir Singh Malik said.
“The number of road accidents went down by 3.3% and the number of injuries by 4.8% in 2017 as compared to 2016. The number of deaths on account of road accidents declined by 1.9 % in 2017, compared to the previous year,” the ministry said in a statement.
In 2016, 4,80,652 road accidents took place claiming 1,50,785 lives leaving another 4,94,624 people injured.
A total of 1,34,796 fatal accidents were reported in 2017, which is 0.9 % lower than the 2016 figure of 1,36,071.
In terms of road-user categories, the share of two-wheeler riders in total fatality has been highest at 33% in 2017. Pedestrians comprise 13.8 % of persons killed in mishaps during 2017.
Young adults in the age group of 18 - 45 years accounted for 72.1%of victims during 2017. People in working age group of 18 – 60 years accounted for a share of 87.2 % in the total road accident fatalities.
“The national highways accounted for 30.4 % of total road accidents and 36 % of deaths in 2017. Accidents on state high- ways and other roads constitute 25% and 44.6% respectively,” the report said.
In case of fatality, state highways and other roads have accounted for 26.9% and 37.1%, respectively.
“Out of the total network of more than 3 million kilometers the centre controls only around 100,000 kilometers. If you compare total fatalities, national highways account for a higher share. This is because over a period of time, quality of the roads have improved, therefore the average speed of the vehicles has also increased. On one hand it has given us economic benefit on the other since people are driving at higher speeds the fatalities have increased,” said Kushal Singh, partner Deloitte India.
Over speeding and driving on the wrong side together accounted for 76.7% of total accidents and 73.1 % of total deaths in 2017.