New Delhi: In a startling revelation, it has come to the notice that a total of 4,61,312 road accidents occurred in 2022, which claimed 1,68,491 lives, while 4,43,366 people were injured. As per a new report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), the number of road accidents has increased by 11.9 percent in a year and fatalities by 9.4 percent increase in 2022. Besides, the country reported a 15.3 percent surge in the number of people getting injured in the last year.
As per the report, India witnessed death of 19 persons every hour and 53 road accidents took place every hour in the country.
“This marks an increase of 11.9 percent in accidents, 9.4 percent in fatalities, and 15.3 percent in injuries compared to the previous year,” the report titled ‘Road accidents in India – 2022’ said.
As per the report, for the fourth consecutive year in 2022, the fatal road accident victims largely constituted young people in the productive age groups.
“Young adults in the age group of 18 - 45 years accounted for 66.5 percent of victims during 2022,” the report said, adding that people in the working age group of 18 - 60 years constitute 83.4 percent of total road accident fatalities.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has set a target to reduce the number of accidents in the country and the resulting deaths by half by 2024.
In 2022, total 1,68,491 road accident fatalities were reported by states/UTs which is higher than the 2021 reported figure of 1,53,972.
As per the report, during 2022, a total of 4,61,312 accidents were recorded in the country, of which, 1,51,997 (32.9 percent ) took place on National Highways (NH), including expressways, 1,06,682 (23.1 percent ) on state highways and the remaining 2,02,633 (43.9 percent) on other roads.
“Out of the total of 1,68,491 fatalities reported in 2022, 61,038 (36.2 percent) were on national highways, 41,012 (24.3 percent) were on state highways and 66,441 (39.4 percent) were on other roads,” it added.
Among vehicle categories involved in road accidents, two-wheelers for the second consecutive year, accounted for the highest share in total accidents and fatalities during 2022. The report said that light vehicles comprising cars, jeeps and taxis together came at a distant second.
In terms of road-user categories, it said that the share of two-wheeler riders in total fatality was the highest (44.5 percent) during 2022 followed by the pedestrian road-users with 19.5 percent of persons killed in road accidents.
Amongst states, Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents on National Highways in 2022, whereas, the number of persons killed in road accidents was the highest in Uttar Pradesh.
“Tamil Nadu with 64,105 accidents (13.9 percent) recorded the highest number of road accidents in 2022 followed by Madhya Pradesh (54,432 i.e.,11.8 percent).
“Uttar Pradesh (22,595 i.e, 13.4 percent) topped the states in respect of the number of fatalities due to road accidents followed by Tamil Nadu (17,884 i.e., 10.6 percent),” it said.