New Delhi: The Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) released the annual report on road accidents in India today. According to the report, road accidents in the country have marginally declined by 3.3% to 464,910 from 480,652 in 2016 taking the number of people killed in road traffic crashes from 150,785 in 2016 to 147,913 in 2017.

Road traffic injuries constitute the 8th leading causes of death in India in 2016 and are the leading cause of health loss among young men of age 15-49 years.

On an average around 1,273 accidents and 405 deaths took place daily on Indian roads in last one year, which translates into 53 accidents and loss of 17 lives every hour.

The annual accident Report of 2017 also reveals that out of the total 148,913 people killed in road crash deaths in 2017, 49.9% were the youth of 18 to 35 years and children of less than 18 years age group involved in road crash deaths were 6.5%. Among the road deaths victims, 127,787 (86.4%) were male and 20,047 (13.6%) were female.

Among the States, highest road fatalities were observed In Uttar Pradesh (20,124) followed by Tamil Nadu (16,157), Maharashtra (12,264) and Karnataka (10,609).

Among the cities, Chennai recorded highest number of road accidents at 7257 followed by Delhi (6673), Indore (4513), Jabalpur (3303), Mumbai (3160), Kolkata (3131), and Jaipur (2983). On the other side, Delhi had the highest number of road crash deaths at 1565 followed by Chennai (1264), Jaipur (753), Bengaluru (616), Kanpur (608), Lucknow (581), Mumbai (467), and Agra (379)

Commenting on the report, Piyush Tewari, CEO and founder, SaveLIFE Foundation said, “The data provided by the government is not entirely accurate as it relies on the FIRs that only capture immediate deaths in road crashes. What about the victim who dies a few days after the registration of the FIR, due to injuries suffered in the crash? A change in circumstances is reflected only in the charge-sheet, and not in the FIR, which is the primary source of Government’s data. Consequently, a number of deaths are not even counted. The source of data must change from the police to the health system to accurately capture the number of deaths and injuries. “

With marginal reduction of 1.9% in road fatalities from 2016 to 2017, there is an increased urgency to take concrete steps like passing the Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill in Parliament, tightening the norms to get a commercial driver’s license along with addressing speeding as a key factor responsible for road crashes, and consequent deaths and therefore speed governor not be removed from commercial vehicles. Government data shows that speeding is responsible for 70% of all crashes, over 66% of all resultant deaths,” he added.