Over 1.5 Lakh People Were Killed On Indian Roads In 2016: MoRTH

To meet the demand for road transport, the number of vehicles and the length of road network have increased over the years.

A negative externality associated with expansion in road network, motorisation and urbanisation in the country is the increase in road accidents and road crash fatalities. Today, road traffic injuries are one of the leading causes of death, disabilities and hospitalisation in the country imposing huge socio-economic cost.

According to the report, `Road accidents in India-2016’, prepared by the Transport Research Wing (TRW) of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, during 2016, a total of 480,652 road accidents were reported by all the States / Union Territories. Of these 136,071 (28.3%) were fatal accidents. The number of persons killed in road accidents were 150,785, an average of one fatality per 3.2 accidents. The number of persons injured in road accidents was 494, 624. The analysis of road accident data 2016 reveals that on an average 1317 accidents and 413 deaths take place every day on Indian roads which further translates into 55 accidents and loss of 17 lives every hour in our country.

During the calendar year 2016, the number of accidents reported at 480,652 is lower by 4.1% as compared with 501,423 in 2015. Number of persons injured as a result of road accidents at 494,624 in 2016 is also marginally reduced by 1.1% from 500,279 in 2015. However, the number of persons killed in accidents increased by 3.2% from 146,133 in 2015 to 150,785 in 2016. Accident severity (number of persons killed per 100 accidents) has gone up from 29.1 in 2015 to 31.4 in 2016.

The National Highways constitute about 2% of the total road network of India, but they accounted for 29.6% of road accidents and 34.5% of number of persons killed. The State Highways accounted for 25.3% of accidents and 27.9% of the number of persons killed in road accident in 2016.