Youths are the biggest victims of road accidents in India

Youths have become the biggest victims of road accidents in India as young adults between the age group of 18-45 years accounted for nearly 69.3% of the road accident victims in the last year.

As per the Road Accidents Report-2019, the data compiled by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, people belonging to the group of 18-60 years accounted for a share of 84.3% of the total road accident deaths.

Of the 449,002 accidents in 2019, total 151,113 persons died and 451,361 were injured. Among the those who died, 1,04,739 persons were aged between 18 to 35 years. Total 1,27,350 persons who were aged between 18 to 60 years died last year.

Men were the biggest accident victims with 1,29,319 dying last year against 21,794 women.

More people died in road accidents in the rural areas than in the urban areas last year despite vehicle density being more in the cities.

67.1% people died of road accident in the rural areas, while in the urban are 32.9% people died.

"Road accident victim largely constitutes young people in the productive age groups underscoring major implication on the economic cost of road accidents," says the report.

Earlier Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "When translated into economic terms on road accidents, estimates suggest that this has adversely affected our GDP by as much as 2-3% per annum."

"Road accidents not only have an economic impact, but also serious implications for those involved in such crashes and their immediate families who suffer severe physical and psychological trauma as a result," he said.