According to “Road Accidents in India-2022”, the annual report published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways(MoRTH). The States and Union Territories (UTs) of India reported a total of 4,61,312 road accidents during 2022.
Overview of Road Accidents in India – 2022:
i.The accidents occurred during 2022 have claimed around 1,68,491 lives and caused injuries to 4,43,366 persons.
- Compared to 2021, the records show an increase of 11.9% in accidents, 9.4% in fatalities, and 15.3% in injuries.
ii.This underlines the need to adopt a comprehensive approach to address the contributing factors to these accidents, like speeding, reckless driving, drunken driving, and non-compliance with traffic regulations.
States with Highest Number of Accidents & Fatalities:
i.Tamil Nadu (TN) tops the list of States in Number of Accidents for the 5th consecutive year. TN has reported 64,105 (13.9%) accidents in 2022.
- TN is followed by Madhya Pradesh with 54,432 (11.8%), Kerala with 43,910 (9.5%) accidents, Uttar Pradesh with 41,746 (9.1%) and Karnataka with 39,762 (8.6%).
ii.TN also recorded the highest number of road accidents on National Highways in 2022 with 18,972 accidents (12.5%) followed by Kerala with 17,627 (11.6%) accidents, Uttar Pradesh with 14,990 (9.9%) accidents, Madhya Pradesh with 13,860 (9.1%) accidents and Karnataka with 13,384 (8.8%) accidents.
iii.Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of road accident fatalities on the National level in 2022 with 13.9% of fatalities followed by TN (9.8%), Maharashtra (8.1%), Karnataka (6.82%) and Rajasthan (6.81%).
About the Report:
i.“Road Accidents in India-2022” was prepared by the Transport Research Wing (TRW) under MoRTH using data collected from the police departments of States/UTs during 2022.
ii.These data were received in the standardised formats 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.
iii.This will serve as a resource for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders working in the road safety sector.
Key Points:
i.The report offers insights on several aspects of road accidents such as causes, locations and their impact on the diverse categories of road users.
ii.This also highlights the emerging trends, challenges, and road safety initiatives of MoRTH.
iii.MoRTH is working with various organisations and stakeholders to devise a multi-pronged strategy to address the issue of road safety focusing on the 4Es: Education, Engineering (both roads and vehicles), Enforcement and Emergency Care.
iv.To combat road accidents, various initiatives like the Electronic Detailed Accident Report (e-DAR) for real-time data analysis and automated vehicle inspection centres are being developed.
- The e-DAR project is aided by the World Bank to provide an ‘integrated’ and a “systemic” solution to the problem of accidents in line with international practice.
Recent Related News:
According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) -EY a report titled ‘Road Safety in India – Navigating through nuances‘, Road accidents claim around 1.5 million lives in India every year. India accounts for 11% of all road crash deaths and tops the world in road crash deaths and injuries.
About Ministry of Road Transport and Highways(MoRTH):
Union Minister– Nitin Jairam Gadkari (Constituency- Nagpur, Maharashtra)
Minister of State– General (Retd.) Vijay Kumar Singh (Constituency- Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh)
