Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents.
A total of 4,12,432 road accidents occurred in the 2021 calendar year which claimed 1,53,972 lives while 3,84,448 people were injured, according to a new report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).
The report titled 'Road accidents in India -- 2021', said major indicators related to accidents have performed better in 2021 when compared to 2019.
"Road accidents decreased by 8.1 per cent and injuries decreased by 14.8 per cent in 2021 compared to 2019.
"Fatalities, however, on account of road accidents increased by 1.9 per cent in 2021 corresponding to the same period in 2019," it said.
As per the report, the number of road accidents in 2021 increased by 12.6 per cent on average compared to the previous year 2020.
Similarly, the number of deaths and injuries on account of road accidents increased by 16.9 percent and 10.39 percent respectively, it added.
The report said, "These figures translate, on an average, into 1130 accidents and 422 deaths every day or 47 accidents and 18 deaths every hour in the country.
According to the report, in 2020, the country saw an unprecedented decrease in accidents, fatalities and injuries.
This was due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant stringent nationwide lockdown particularly during March-April, 2020 followed by gradual unlocking and phasing out of the containment measures, it said.
According to the report, young adults in the age group of 18-45 years accounted for 67.6 per cent of victims during 2021, while people in the working age group of 18-60 years share 84.5 per cent of total road accident fatalities.
During 2021, out 4,12,432 accidents which were recorded in the country, 1,28,825 (31.2 per cent ) took place on National Highways (NH) including Expressways, 96,382 (23.4 per cent) on State Highways (SH) and the remaining 1,87,225 (45.4 per cent) on other Roads.
It said out of total 1,42,163 fatal accidents reported in 2021, 50,953 (35.8 per cent) were on National Highways, 34,946 (24.6 per cent) were on State Highways and 56,264 (39.6 per cent) were on other roads.
An accident, which results in death of one or more persons, is a fatal accident.
Total number of fatal road accidents increased from 1,20,806 in 2020 to 1,42,163 in 2021, registering an increase of 17.7 per cent corresponding to same period of previous year Fatal accidents constitute 34.5 per cent of total accidents during 2021, it said.
Amongst the states, Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents on National Highways in 2021, whereas, the number of persons killed in road accidents was the highest in Uttar Pradesh.
In 2021, under the category of Traffic Rule Violations, over speeding is a major killer, accounting for 69.6 per cent of the persons killed followed by driving on the wrong side (5.2 per cent) In respect of type of neighborhood's categories, 46.9 per cent of accidents, 54.2 per cent of death and 46.9per 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, 67.5 per cent of accidents took place on straight roads, whereas accidents on curved roads, pothole roads and steep grade together accounted for only 13.9 per cent of the total road accidents in 2021.
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 2021.
Light vehicles comprising cars, jeeps and taxis together come at a distant second.
In terms of road-user categories, the share of two-wheeler riders in total fatality has been the highest (45.1 per cent) during 2021 followed by the pedestrian road-users with 18.9 per cent of persons killed in road accidents.
During the year 2021, million-plus cities accounted for 16.3 per cent of the total number of accidents and 9.9 per cent of total accident fatalities in the country.
According to the report, both road accidents and accident-related killings are more a rural phenomenon than an urban phenomenon.
Hence, in 2021, about 69 per cent of road accidents death took place in rural areas whereas urban areas accounted for 31 percent of total accidents death in the country, it said.
'Hit from Back' (21.2 per cent ) accounted for the largest share in total accidents and total number of persons killed (18.6 per cent) during 2021 followed by 'Head on Collision'(18.5 per cent) and (17.7 per cent) respectively.
The other major types of collision which caused death are 'hit & run' (16.8 per cent), and 'hit from side' (11.9 per cent).
Road accident severity measured by the number of persons killed per 100 accidents increased from 36.0 in 2020 to 37.3 in 2021.
Mizoram (81) recorded the highest accident severity followed by Bihar (80) and Punjab (78).
About 60 per cent of States have accident severity higher than the national average, the report said.
The report is based on the data/information received from police departments of states/Union Territories collected on a calendar year basis.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)