India tops world in road accident fatalities: Nitin Gadkari

Globally, India has recorded the highest number of deaths caused by road accidents, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. 

In a written response, Gadkari cited the latest issue of the World Road Statistics (WRS) 2018 and said that India tops the world in terms of the number of persons killed in road accidents. Globally, it also ranks number 3 in terms of people injured in accidents.

“And India ranks number 1 as per the number of persons killed and ranks number 3 as per number of persons injured in road accidents,” Gadkari said. 

The data was released by Geneva’s International Road Federation. 

Gadkari told the Parliament that the percentage of deaths involving road users aged between 18 to 45 years was 69.80% in 2020.

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According to the data collected by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), India has recorded 3,54,796 cases of road accidents in 2020, including 1,33,201 deaths and 3,35,201 people sustaining injuries. 

Over 60% of road accidents, caused by overspeeding, accounted for 75,333 deaths and 2,09,736 injured people. According to the data, while 43.6% of victims of road accidents were two-wheelers, 13.2% of them drove cars, 12.8% drove trucks and 3.1% drove buses. 

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The data also revealed that reckless driving and overtaking caused 24.3% of road accidents and resulted in 35,219 deaths and 77,067 people getting injured. Merely 2.4% of road accidents were caused due to unsafe weather conditions.

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Followed by the United States, India has the second-largest road network in the world. Despite bagging a second rank, the country lacks strong enforcement of traffic rules and regulations.