State roads see 30 deaths a day

The roads in Karnataka continue to tell a bloody tale every year.

According to statistics released by the Karnataka state police, around 30 people perish daily in road accidents in the state. Data shows that from January to May this year, an average of 835 fatal accident cases were registered per month, with the number of those killed touching 900 every month.

Out of these 900 victims, over 300 (around 34% to 37%) were killed in accidents on national highways, while state highways and other roads accounted for the rest of the toll.

The numbers suggest a slight yearly hike in fatalities.

In 2018, the average number of fatal accidents reported from January until December was 795 per month while the number of deaths was 869 a month.

In 2019, till May, around 2,700 nonfatal cases were reported every month (i.e. 90 cases per day). Out of this, around 850 accidents happened on national highways every month.

Stats suggest that a little over 4,600 people were injured in accidents every month of which 1,500 were hurt on national highways.

However, experts say the numbers should be taken with a pinch of salt. They say the trend of road accidents and death rates continuing in the same magnitude when compared to previous years, shows that the data could be “manipulated or cooked up” or simply a wrong entry.

“In any country, the ratio of fatal to nonfatal road accidents would be around 1:10,” says M N Sreehari.

The traffic expert points out that the rate of fatalities and non-fatalities cannot be the same every month and year. There are a lot of factors that affect road accident rates — it could be the increasing vehicle population on a particular highway at a particular time, speeding, losing control of vehicle while driving, sleeping at wheels, road defects, vehicle defects etc.