NEW DELHI: Latest statistics released by the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) on Tuesday revealed that ‘over speeding’ is the major cause for road accidents and deaths in the country.
In 2022, 72.4 percent of accidents and 75.2 percent of deaths were recorded due to violation of the speed limit. The report—‘Road Accidents Death in India 2022’ also disclosed that over 50,000 people died in accidents involving two wheelers as they were not wearing helmets. The report states that 35,692 of the victims were the riders and 14,337 were riding pillion.
According to the fresh data, 16,715 persons were killed, who were not wearing seat belts. About 8,300 of them were behind the wheels and the remaining 8,331 were co- passengers.
In total, 4.61 lakh road accidents were reported across states and union territories (UTs) during 2022, which claimed 1. 68 lakh lives and caused injuries to 4.43 lakh individuals. This marks an increase of 11.9 percent in accidents, 9.4 percent in fatalities, and 15.3 percent in injuries compared to the previous year.
The fatalities registered last year were the highest since 2018 when 1.57 lakh road accident deaths had taken place. The number gradually dipped during Covid pandemic as a lot of restrictions on travelling were in place. The number of road accidents, however, was higher in 2018. Over 4.70 lakh mishaps had happened.
Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents on National Highways in 2022, whereas, the number of persons killed in road accidents was the highest in Uttar Pradesh.
With 64,105 accidents, which is about 14 percent of the total number of accidents, recorded the highest number of road accidents followed by Madhya Pradesh, where 54,432 mishaps occurred.
With 22, 595 fatalities in road crashes, Uttar Pradesh is on the top followed by Tamil Nadu, where 17,884 deaths were recorded.
Expressing concern over the rising number of crashes and casualties, the report underscores the urgency of adopting a comprehensive approach to address the contributing factors to these accidents, including speeding, reckless driving, drunken driving, and non-compliance with traffic regulations.
“Vehicles driven by untrained and unqualified drivers are a serious traffic hazard. Though the problem is basically an enforcement issue, it must also be addressed with better facilities and opportunities for training or skilling and evaluation or testing,” the minister noted.