Edited By: Revathi Hariharan
Last Updated: January 12, 2023, 10:15 AM IST
Nearly 14,000 people died due to accidents caused by foggy and misty conditions. This was a rise from 12,084 deaths in 2020. (ANI Photo)
While Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents, most deaths due to accidents were reported in Uttar Pradesh.
Over 1.5 lakh people died in over 4 lakh road accidents in the country in 2021, according to a report released by the road transport ministry. There was a 12,6% increase in road accidents this year compared to 2020.
While Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents, most deaths due to accidents were reported in Uttar Pradesh. According to the report, over-speeding was regarded a major killer, accounting for 69.6% of the total deaths.
According to the ministry, “Despite some fluctuations, road accident depicts a general increasing trend over the years. However, number of accident has been decreasing since 2017 except for the increase recorded in 2021.”
The Road accident severity measured by the number of persons killed per 100 accidents, increased from 36.0 in 2020 to 37.3 in 2021, the report says adding that States like Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana reported the highest share of accidents and fatalities in 2021.
“The same set of States which constituted top 10 in 2019 and 2020 constitutes the top 10 in 2021. Tamil Nadu retains its top position in 2021 for the sixth consecutive year,” the report said.
During 2021, a total of 50,953 fatal accidents took place on National Highways, whereas about 43,412 fatal accidents were reported in the year 2020.
While there were several key factors that resulted in the accidents, a chunk of the accidents also occurred due to weather conditions mainly fog. Accidents under adverse weather conditions such as rainy, foggy and hail/sleet accounted for 16.8% of total road accidents during 2021.
Nearly 14,000 people died due to accidents caused by foggy and misty conditions. This was a rise from 12,084 deaths in 2020.
In terms of cities where most of these accidents were reported – Chennai has recorded the highest number of accidents in 2021, followed by Delhi and Jabalpur being at the third place. Other accident prone cities included Indore,Bengaluru, Bhopal, Vizaq, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Jaipur among others that accounted for 47.7% of the total road accidents.
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