NEW DELHI: The number of road accidents and fatalities in 2017 came down by 3.3 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively, from the previous year, revealed a report of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, released on Tuesday. According to the report, titled 'Road Accidents in India - 2017', a total of 4.64 lakh road accidents took place in 2017, of which 1.34 lakh were fatal accidents, and the number of people who died in these mishaps stood at 1.47 lakh.
The number of injuries in road accidents came down by 4.8 per cent to 4.7 lakh while the number of fatal accidents decreased by 0.9 per cent.“The number of road accidents and injuries has declined in 2017 for the second consecutive year. This declining trend is reinforced by the lesser number of persons killed in road accidents over the previous year. The 2017 statistics seems to suggest plateauing of India’s road accident and fatality curves. Maintaining this trend would, however, be contingent upon carrying forward the current proactive approach towards road safety by all stakeholders,” the report stated.
A ministry official said the declining trend was a sign of rising awareness among people. “We will keep working on creating awareness and further reducing the rate of accidents and fatalities. Roping in big names like actor Akshay Kumar as safety ambassador has helped the cause,” the official said.
In terms of the location of mishaps, national highways accounted for 30.4 per cent of accidents and 36 per cent of fatalities while state highways accounted for 25 per cent of the accidents and 26.9 per cent of the deaths. Nearly 45 per cent of mishaps and 37 per cent of deaths took place on other roads.
According to the report, two-wheelers were involved in 33.9 per cent of the total mishaps and almost 30 per cent of the fatalities and light motor vehicles like cars and jeeps in 24.5 per cent of the accidents and 21.1 per cent of the fatalities. Pedestrians amounted to 13.5 per cent of the total fatalities, a rise of three per cent from 2016, the report said.