The number of road accidents in India went up by an alarming 12 per cent to over 4.6 lakh in 2022, resulting in the death of 19 persons every hour, according to a report by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
The report showed that 53 road accidents take place every hour in the country.
“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.
“This marks an increase of 11.9 per cent in accidents, 9.4 per cent in fatalities, and 15.3 per cent 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 per cent of victims during 2022,” the report said, adding that people in working age group of 18 – 60 years constitute 83.4 per cent of total road accident fatalities.
In 2022, total 1,68,491 road accident fatalities were reported by states/UTs which is higher than 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 per cent ) took place on National Highways (NH), including expressways, 1,06,682 (23.1 per cent ) on state highways and the remaining 2,02,633 (43.9 per cent) 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 added.
