The number of road accidents in India went up by an alarming 12 per cent to over 4.6 lakh in 2022, resulting in death of 19 persons every hour, according to a report by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The report showed that 53 road accidents take place every hour in the country.

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"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.

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 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.

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 light vehicles comprising cars, jeeps and taxis together came at distant second.

In terms of road-user categories, it said the share of two-wheeler riders in total fatality was the highest(44.5 per cent ) during 2022 followed the pedestrian road-users with 19.5 per cent 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 accident was the highest in Uttar Pradesh.

"Tamil Nadu with 64,105 accidents (13.9 per cent) recorded the highest number of road accidents in 2022 followed by Madhya Pradesh (54,432 i.E.,11.8 per cent).

"Uttar Pradesh (22,595 i.E., 13.4 per cent) topped the states in respect of the number of fatalities due to road accidents followed by Tamil Nadu (17,884 i.E., 10.6 per cent)," it said.

In 2022, under the category of traffic rule violations, over speeding was a major killer, accounting for 71.2 per cent of the persons killed followed by driving on the wrong side (5.4 per cent).

The report showed that 47.7 per cent of accidents, 55.1 per cent of deaths and 48.2 per cent of injuries occurred in open area, i.E.,locations which normally do not have any human activities in the vicinity.

Under road feature category, 67 per cent of accidents took place on straight roads,whereas accidents on curved roads,pothole roads and steep grade together accounted for only 13.8 per cent of the total road accidents in 2022.

As per the report, the total number of fatal road accidents increased from 1,42,163 in 2021 to 1,55,781 in 2022, registering an increase of 9.6 per cent corresponding to the same period last year An accident, which results in death of one or more person, is a fatal accident.

'Hit from Back' accounted for the largest share in total accidents death (19.5 per cent) in 2022 ,followed by 'Hit and Run' and 'Head on Collision' which accounted for 18.1 per cent and 15.7 per cent, respectively.

'Hit from Back' accounted for the largest share in total accidents (21.4 per cent), followed by 'Head on Collision' and 'others' which account for 16.9 per cent and 16.5 per cent, respectively.

The annual report is based on the data/information received from police departments of states/UTs on a calendar year basis in standardised formats as provided by the United

Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) under the Asia Pacific Road Accident Data (APRAD) base project.

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