HYDERABAD: Nearly 18 people died on the roads of Telangana everyday in 2018. This was revealed in the data released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in its report called Road Accidents in India 2018. According to the data, Telangana’s roads saw 22,230 accidents with 6,603 deaths and 23,613 persons getting injured.
As per the report, the State was adjudged as the 8th worst State in terms of road safety and the severity of accidents in the State is pegged at 29.7 points, which means for every 100 accidents, at least 29.7 persons died. The State barely improved from its figures of 2017. A glance at the data from previous years suggest that these figures have marginally become better, by just 1.1 per cent in terms of total accidents.
The number of accidents in 2017 were 22,484, and in 2018 it fell to 22,230. However, when comparing data for these two years in terms of fatality, there was an increase from 6,596 deaths in 2017, to 6,603 deaths in 2018. The result is a 0.1 per cent increase in fatality in 2018. In terms of those injured, this number marginally dipped from 23,990 in 2017 to 23,613 in 2018.
The data suggests that there is no reason for cheer for the State, as the accidents even if they reduced marginally, the fatality rate is still the same. Experts note the State’s measly allocation to road safety is to blame. “The State has had no specific allocation to make roads safer. Whatever is being done is done with the help of corporates. The State has not even allocated enough staff for the Road Safety Authority, which has just one officer. Only combined efforts of the State, the citizens and the Centre can change these figures,” added Vinod Kamula, CEO, Indian Federation of Road Safety.
The data furthermore suggested that most of the accidents happen on the National highway, where 2,064 fatalities occurred. This has increased from 2017 where 1,954 deaths happened on the highway. State highways were a shade better with 1,165 deaths in 2018 compared to 1,357 in 2017. This clearly suggests that at least 50 per cent of the accidents occur in the districts where the local and long distance traffic is not being able to traverse smoothly.