NEW DELHI: India has seen a sharp decline in the number of road accidents and fatalities in 2020. A total of 3,66,138 road accidents occurred in India during the calendar year 2020, resulting in 1,31,714 deaths.
Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, stated in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha that the total number of road accidents in 2018 were 4,67,044 in which 4,69,418 got injured and 1,51,417 were killed. There was a little dip of over three per cent in 2019. 1,51,113 individuals were killed in road accidents in India in 2019, with a total number of accidents in the country standing at 4,49,002.
However, a significant improvement was seen in 2020 in which saw over 22 per cent decline in the number of injured bringing the cases to 3,48,279. Similarly, death in road accidents also witnessed a dip of 12.84 per cent bringing the total deaths in 2020 to 1,31,714.
Maximum cases of deaths were reported from Uttar Pradesh where 19149 cases of deaths US were reported. UP was followed by Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh where fatalities were reported over 11,000.
Many attribute long lockdown and lesser traffic movement during the pandemic.
To address the issue of road safety, the Ministry has developed a multi-pronged plan centred on Education, Engineering (both of roads and cars), Enforcement, and Emergency Care.