1.53 lakh persons died in road accidents in 2021

A total 1,53, 972 persons lost their lives in road accidents in India in the year 2021, government informed on Wednesday.

' Road accidents in India — 2021’ report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) datat says that a total of 4,12,432 road accidents occured in last year. The report also mentions that around 3,84,448 people were injured due to road accidents.

In 2021, over speeding that falls under the category of Traffic Rule Violations turned out to be the major culprit behind deaths caused by accidents. It accounted for 69.6 percent of the persons killed followed by driving on the wrong side (5.2 per cent).

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Amongst the States, Tamil Nadu with 55,682 accidents (13.5 per cent) recorded the highest number of road accidents in 2021 followed by Madhya Pradesh (48, 877 i.e. 11.8 per cent). Uttar Pradesh (21, 227 i.e. 13.8 per cent) topped the States in respect of the number of persons killed due to road accidents followed by Tamil Nadu (15,384 i.e. 10 per cent).

According to the report, road mishaps decreased by 8.1 per cent and injuries decreased by 14.8 per cent in 2021 compared to 2019.

“Fatalities, however, on account of road accidents increased by 1.9 per cent in 2021 corresponding to the same period in 2019,” it said.

According to the report, in 2020, the country saw an unprecedented decrease in accidents, fatalities and injuries.

This was due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and resultant stringent nation-wide lockdown particularly during March-April, 2020 followed by gradual unlocking and phasing out of the containment measures, it said.

"India is committed to bring down fatalities caused by road accidents. As the road accidents are multi-causal which requires multi-pronged measures to mitigate the problems through concerted efforts of all agencies of both Centre and states," the statement from the Ministry said.

The report is based on the data/information received from police departments of states/Union Territories collected on calendar year basis in standardized formats as provided by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) under the Asia Pacific Road Accident Data (APRAD) base project, said the statement.