From 20.2 in 2000 to 37.3 in 2021, India’s road accident severity – the number of persons killed per 100 mishaps – has nearly doubled, according to the data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
In 2021, 81 people were killed per 100 accidents in Mizoram, highest in the country, while it was 80 for Bihar.
MoRTH’s annual report ‘Road Accidents in India – 2021’, released this week, shows that with some marginal fluctuations, the accident severity has been on the rise since 2000.
“It underscores the need for improved trauma care and traffic calming measures which aim at reducing crash impact parameters,” the report said.
The data analysed by News18 shows that in 2021, accident severity was the highest in Mizoram, followed by Bihar. These are followed by Punjab (78); Meghalaya (76); and Jharkhand (74). Further, Uttarakhand (58), Uttar Pradesh (56) and Arunachal Pradesh (55) are next in line. On the other end of the spectrum were Nagaland (7) and Goa (8).
Further analysing the data shows that since 2018, the accident severity for Mizoram has been above 77, with the highest in 2018 at 89. For Bihar and Punjab, accident severity has been above 70 since 2018, and for Jharkhand, it was above 65. Among the top five states, Meghalaya has seen the most drastic changes – from 45 in 2018 to 76 in 2022.
As per the report, a very important indicator to monitor road accidents is the extent of road accident severity and it added that this “needs attention”. It also shows that about 60% of states have accident severity higher than the national average of 37.
According to the report, 1,53,972 lives were lost to road accidents across India in 2021, the highest since 2011. That means, on an average, around 422 deaths were reported each day or around 18 deaths every hour.
It shows that there were 4,12,432 road accidents in 2021, which caused injuries to 3,84,448 persons. Compared to 2020, India has reported 22,258 more deaths in road accidents in 2021 – a jump of around 17%, the data analysed by News18 shows.
Road transport is the most cost-effective mode of transportation in India both for freight and passengers, keeping in view its level of penetration in populated areas. Exposure to an adverse traffic environment is high in India because of the unprecedented rate of motorisation and growing urbanisation fueled by a high rate of economic growth. As a result, incidents of road accidents, traffic injuries and fatalities have remained unacceptably high. Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death globally and the principal cause of death in the age group of 15 to 49.
Read all the Latest India News here
Comments
0 comment