Road accident deaths in India rose from 1.3 lakh in 2020 to 1.5 lakh in 2021, according to the latest report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). A total of 4.3 lakh road accidents occurred last year in which 3.7 lakh people were non-fatally injured. The numbers are part of the ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India – 2021’ report published by NCRB. The bureau draws its data from state crime records bureaus and district crime record bureaus.

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Fatal accidents too went up in 2021, clocking at a 0.53 average. This is higher than the number in 2020 (0.45) and 2019 (0.52), but lower than in 2017 (0.59) and 2018 (0.56). It is important to note here that India was under lockdowns through much of 2020 and a large part of 2019. Curbs were imposed to stem the spread of COVID-19 and restrictions led to lower vehicular activity.

Interestingly, NCRB data show that even though the number of deaths in road accidents has gone up, the total number of accidents in 2021 is less than what it was both in 2020 and 2019.

Maharashtra reported the largest number of fatalities in road accidents – 58,242; 47,180 men and 11,053 women died in these road accidents. On Saturday, September 4, Cyrus Mistry, former chairman of Tata Sons, met with an accident while he was travelling from Ahmedabad to Mumbai in a Mercedes car. The accident took place near Palghar in Maharashtra.

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Madhya Pradesh reported the second-highest number of road accidents. A total of 30,758 men and 9,750 women died in road accidents taking the total to 40,510.

Nagaland, in India’s northeast, reported the lowest number of road accident fatalities – 73. Of them, 67 were men and six were women. Mizoram reported the second-lowest number of road accident-related deaths – 232.