Mumbai on top in road accidents, death toll highest in Delhi: Study

Mumbai has got the dubious distinction of the city with maximum road accidents in the country, while the number of deaths in road mishaps is highest in the national capital, a government study showed today.

“Mumbai had the highest number of 23,468 number of road accidents during 2015 while Delhi had the highest number of 1,622 deaths due to road accidents,” the ‘Road Accidents in India’ report unveiled by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said.

In 2015, there were about 5 lakh road accidents in the country, of which 1.46 lakh people were killed.“In 2015, 50 million-plus cities accounted for a share of 22.1 per cent in total road accidents in the country, 11.3 persons in total persons killed in road accidents and 16.4 per cent in total persons injured in road accidents,” the report said.

Thirteen states accounted for 87.2 per cent of road accidents. Tamil Nadu occupied the top slot with 79,746 persons injured in road accidents. Besides, the list include Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal.

The report said two wheelers accounted for the highest - about one-third share of - the alarming 5 lakh road accidents in India in 2015 while 33 per cent of people killed in crashes belonged to 15-24 years age bracket.

Next to it, was the share of the groups of cars, jeeps and taxis in 2015. Overloaded vehicles caused 77,116 accidents and 25,199 deaths.

While 28.4 per cent accidents occurred on National Highways, 24 per cent took place on State Highways and and 47.6 per cent on other roads last year. “National Highways accounted for a share of 35 per cent in total number of persons killed and 29 per cent in total number of persons injured,” it said.

About 17 per cent each accidents happened between 1500 to 1800 hours and 1800 to 2100 hours, as per the study. “Drivers fault has been revealed as the single most responsible factor for road accidents, killings and injuries on all roads for a long period of time... Driver’s fault accounted for 77 per cent of total accidents in 2015.

“Within the category of driver’s fault, road accidents caused and persons killed due to exceeding lawful speed/over speeding by drivers accounted for a share of 62.2 per cent accidents and 61 per cent deaths,” the report said.

Accidents and deaths caused due to “intake of alcohol drugs” in the same category accounted for 4.2 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively, it said. “However taking into account the total road accidents and killings, the share of intake of alcohol/drugs comes to 3.3 per cent,” the report said.

It further said, the total number of hit and run cases was reported stood at 57,083, which is 11.4 per cent of the total road accidents, and about 20,709 persons were killed in such cases. Month wise, highest number of accidents occured in May followed by March, it added.