The report, Road Accidents in India 2016, launched by Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday, stated that road accidents in India, however, went down by 4.1 per cent.
Indian roads claimed 17 lives in 55 accidents per hour on an average last year, a 3.2 per cent jump from the 1.46 lakh road accident fatalities in 2015, revealed the latest road accidents report released by the government.
The report, Road Accidents in India 2016, launched by Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday, stated that road accidents in India, however, went down by 4.1 per cent.
Indian roads saw 4.80 lakh accidents last year, which claimed 1.5 lakh lives and caused grievous injuries to 4.94 lakh people. The report revealed that 46.3 per cent people of road accident victims last year were in the 18-35 years age bracket, while as much as 34.8 per cent of total persons killed were two-wheeler riders. The maximum number of road accidents took place on two-lane roads. Drivers' fault contributed to 84 per cent of road accidents, of which over speeding accounted for 66.5 per cent of accidents and 61 per cent of accident deaths.
Other factors included intake of alcohol or drugs by drivers, which led to 14,894 road accidents (3.7 per cent) and 6,131 fatalities (5.1 per cent) in 2016. Similarly, talking on mobile phones while driving led to 4,976 road accidents, 2,138 fatalities and injuries to 4,746 number of persons in this period.
As much as 11.6 per cent of the total road accidents in 2016 were hit and run cases, up from 10.9 per cent reported in 2015.
The report says 13 states accounted for 86 per cent of accidents, which includes Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Haryana, Kerala, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
Of the the list of million plus cities, Delhi topped with 1,591 road accident deaths in 2016 while Chennai had the highest number of road accidents at 7,486.
Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of road accident deaths in 2016 at 19,320 followed by Tamil Nadu at 17,218 and Maharashtra at 12,935.
A senior official from the ministry said the reason for a high number of road accidents in India is because vehicle registration which went up by 10% between 2005 and 2015 does not match with the 3.75% increase in road length during this period, adding that an increased congestion on roads has resulted in an increase in accidents.
Talking to the media at the event, Gadkari said a 4 per cent decline in road accidents from 2015 to 2016 is an improvement, and another 4 percent decline in accidents this year till July as against the corresponding period of 2016 is encouraging.
Gadkari said he has asked states to utilise their central road fund for improving accidents prone spots on roads.
Referring to the section of the report which stated that educated drivers contribute to the highest number of road accidents, highways secretary Yudhvir Singh Malik said it proves driving is purely a skill and has nothing to do with the driver's educational qualifications.
The motor vehicles amendment bill, which aims at bringing down accidents through hefty penalties and other regulatory mechanism is yet to come to force. The bill was referred to a parliamentary panel for review during the monsoon session.
Toll
Indian roads saw 4.80 lakh accidents in 2017
These accidents claimed 1.5 lakh lives
As many as 4.94 lakh people were grievously injured
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