Road accidents up 12% year over year to 4.6 lakh, with 19 fatalities each hour: Report

In 2022, there were over 4.6 lakh road accidents in India, accounting for the worrisome 12 percent increase in fatalities per hour, as reported by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). 53 traffic accidents occur in the nation per hour, according to the research.

"A total of 4,61,312 road accidents have been reported by states and Union Territories (UTs) during the calendar year 2022, which claimed 1,68,491 lives and caused injuries to 4,43,366 persons."The research titled 'Road accidents in India — 2022' stated that this represents an increase of 11.9% in accidents, 9.4% in fatalities, and 15.3% in injuries over the previous year.

According to the research, young people in the productive age groups made up the majority of the fatal road accident casualties in 2022—for the fourth year in a row.

The survey stated that "young adults in the age group of 18 – 45 years accounted for 66.5 per cent of victims during 2022," and that 83.4 per cent of all road accident fatalities are those in the working age group of 18 – 60 years.

By 2024, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari wants to cut the number of accidents and deaths that come from them in half. States and territories reported 1,68,491 road accident deaths in total in 2022, which is more than the 1,53,972 reported in 2021.

 

According to the research, there were 4,61,312 accidents nationwide in 2022. Of them, 1,51,997 (32.9%) happened on National Highways (NH), which include expressways; 1,06,682 (23.1%) happened on state highways; and the rest 2,02,633 (43.9%) happened on other roads.

"Out of the total of 1,68,491 fatalities reported in 2022, 61,038 (36.2 per cent) were on national highways, 41,012 (24.3 per cent) were on state highways and 66,441 (39.4 per cent) were on other roads," it stated.