Nagaland records second lowest traffic, road accidents in India

Over-speeding and careless driving account for 83.2% of fatal road accidents in India

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Sep. 9 (EMN): Nagaland recorded second lowest traffic and road accidents and deaths in 2019 after Lakshadweep, according to the recently released report by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on ‘traffic accidents’.

NCRB reported that the number of traffic accidents in the country decreased from 4, 74,638 in 2018 to 4, 67, 171 in 2019. However, the rate of deaths in road accidents per thousand vehicles i.e. 0.6 remained the same as it was in 2018. Highest increase in number of traffic accidents among the states from 2018 to 2019 was reported in Madhya Pradesh (from 49,080 to 53,379) followed by Rajasthan (from 22,401 to 24,281) and Uttar Pradesh (from 40,783 to 42,368).

These traffic accidents resulted in injuries to 4, 42,996 persons and 1, 81,113 deaths during 2019. Uttar Pradesh reported highest fatalities in traffic accidents in the country during the period with 27,661 deaths, followed by Maharashtra (18,524 deaths) and Madhya Pradesh (13,497 deaths).

“The percentage share of traffic accidental deaths in total deaths due to ‘other causes’ has increased from 42.9% in 2015 to 43.9% in 2019. A rising trend was seen in the absolute number of deaths in ‘traffic accidents’ since 2015 to 2019. Number of deaths has increased by 1.3% (from 1, 78,832 to 1, and 81,113) in 2019 over 2018”, the report stated.

These traffic accidents comprise of 4,37,396 road accidents, 27,987 railway accidents and 1,788 railway crossing accidents and caused 1,54,732; 24,619; and 1,762 deaths respectively during 2019.

As per the report provided by NCRB, the traffic accident cases during 2019 was the lowest in Lakshadweep with one report, followed by Nagaland with 34, and  Mizoram 57. The traffic accident deaths during 2019 was the lowest in Daman and Diu (29), and 30 in Nagaland while Lakshadweep recorded zero cases.

Time of occurrence-wise analysis of traffic accidents revealed that maximum number of traffic accidents took place from 6 pm to 9 pm and 3 pm to 6 pm, accounting for 18.7% (87,271) and 17.1% (79,935) of total traffic accidents (4,67,171) respectively during 2019.

Road accidents

NCRB reported that a total of 4, 37,396 road accident cases were reported during 2019. Road accident cases in the country decreased from 4, 45,514 in 2018 to 4, 37, 396 in 2019. However fatalities from road accidents increased by 1.3% (from 1, 52,780 in 2018 to 1, 54,732).

“4, 37, 396 road accidents caused 1, 54, 732 deaths and injuries to 4, 39, 262 persons during 2019. Generally road accidents have caused more injuries than deaths, but in Mizoram, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, road accidents caused more deaths compared to persons injured,” it stated.

NCRB report said that Lakshadweep recorded lowest road accident with one and no death, followed by Nagaland with 26 and 22 deaths.

During 2019, the report stated that two-wheelers accounted for maximum fatal road accidents (58,747 deaths), accounting for 38.0% of total road accidental deaths, followed by trucks/lorries (22,637 deaths) (14.6%), cars (21,196 deaths) (13.7%) and buses (9,192 deaths) (5.9%).

The month-wise distribution of ‘road accidents’ showed that most of the road accidents were reported in January (40,508 cases), accounting for 9.3% of total road accidents.

Cause-wise analysis of fatal road accidents revealed that 55.7% (86,241 out of 1, 54,779 deaths) and 27.5% (42,557 out of 1, 54,779 deaths) were due to over-speeding and dangerous/careless driving or overtaking respectively. Poor weather conditions caused 3.2% (4,953) of deaths and 1.3% (2,045) due to mechanical defects in motor vehicles during 2019.

Place of occurrence-wise patterns of road accidents revealed that 59.5% (2,60,379) of total accidents occurred in rural areas and 40.5% (1,77,017) in urban areas out of 4, 37, 396 total cases during 2019. Both in rural as well as urban areas, most of the accidents were reported at places near residential areas. The report also said that 8.5% (37,143 out of 4, 37,396 cases) of road accidents in the country took place near schools, colleges or other educational institutions.