Road accidents claimed 19 lives in India every hour in 2022, govt report says 1.68 lakh killed last year

A total of 4,61,312 road accidents occurred in 2022, which claimed 1,68,491 lives, while 4,43,366 people were injured, according to a new report released by the government on Tuesday.

The report titled 'Road accidents in India -2022' reported 11.9% year-on-year alarming rise in accidents and a 9.4% increase in fatalities. There was a 15.3% surge in the number of people getting injured in 2022 against the previous year.

"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 read.

As per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) report, “During 2022, a total of 4,61,312 accidents were recorded in the country, of which, 1,51,997 (32.9%) took place on the National Highways including Expressways, 1,06,682 (23.1%) on State Highways and the remaining 2,02,633 (43.9%) on other roads.”

“Out of the total of 1,68,491 fatalities reported in 2022, 61,038 (36.2%) were on National Highways, 41,012 (24.3%) were on State Highways and 66,441 (39.4%) were on other roads”, the report said. 

"Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels 🚀 Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!" Click here!

As per the report, 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 MoRTH said, adding that “people in the working age group of 18 – 60 years constitute 83.4% of total road accident fatalities.”

It is interesting to note that, about 68% of road accident deaths took place in rural areas, whereas urban areas accounted for 32% of total accident deaths in the country.

The MoRTH report further said “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. Light vehicles comprising of cars, jeeps and taxis together come at distant second.” 

In terms of road-user categories, the share of two-wheeler riders in total fatality has been the highest (44.5%) during 2022 followed by pedestrian road-users with 19.5% of persons killed in road accidents.

Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents on National Highways in 2022. “Tamil Nadu with 64,105 accidents (13.9%) recorded the highest number of road accidents in 2022 followed by Madhya Pradesh (54,432 i.e.,11.8%).”

Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of persons killed in road accidents.

"Uttar Pradesh topped the states in respect of the number of fatalities (22,595 i.e., 13.4%) due to road accidents followed by Tamil Nadu (17,884 i.e., 10.6%)," the report added.

The MoRTH report said the annual report is based on information provided by police departments of States and Union Territories (UTs) collected on calendar year basis in standardized 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.