Road accident parameters in India registered a decline in 2020 compared to 2019. According to a government data released on Thursday, road accidents decreased on an average by 18.46 per cent, deaths fell by 12.84 per cent and the number of injures reduced by 22.84 per cent in 2020.
As per report ‘Road accidents in India — 2020’, prepared by Transport Research Wing (TRW) of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), the number of road accidents has been on decline since 2016 except for a marginal increase of 0.46 per cent in 2018. For the second consecutive year, the total number of road accidents fatalities has declined in 2020. Similarly, the number of persons injured has been on the decline since 2015.
For the third consecutive year in 2020, the fatal road accident victims largely constitute young people in the productive age groups. Young adults in the age group of 18 - 45 years accounted for 69 per cent of victims during 2020. People in the working age group of 18 – 60 years share 87.4 per cent of total road accident fatalities.
A total of 3,66,138 road accidents have been reported by States and Union Territories (UTs) during the calendar year 2020, which claimed 1,31,714 lives and caused 3, 48,279 injuries, the data showed.
The present volume of ‘Road accidents in India — 2020’ provides information on various facets of road accidents in the country during the calendar year 2020. It has ten sections and covers information relating to road accidents in the context of road length and vehicular population.
Data/information provided in this report is sourced from police departments of States/Union Territories collected on calendar year basis in standardized formats as provided by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) under the Asia Pacific Road Accident Data (APRAD) base project.
As per report, there has also been a decline in the number of fatal accidents, i.e., accident involving at least one death. A total of 1, 20,806 fatal accidents were reported in 2020, which is 12.23 per cent lower than the 2019 figure of 1, 37,689. Interestingly, during 2020, National Highways, State Highways and other roads reported lesser number of accidents, fatalities and injuries as compared to previous year.
Major States that achieved significant reduction in road accident in 2020 are Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. And the major States that achieved significant reduction in road accident fatalities in 2020 are Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
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