New Delhi: Among India’s 53 mega cities, Delhi saw the highest number of deaths in traffic accidents at 2,200, while Bangalore was the most unsafe for pedestrians, with the city recording the highest pedestrian deaths at 255, according to a report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Mega cities are those with a population of one million or more.

According to the Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India-2014 report by NCRB, 18,124 deaths due to traffic accidents were reported in 53 mega cities in 2014.

Delhi was closely followed by Chennai (1,046 deaths), Bhopal (1,015 deaths) and Jaipur (844 deaths), said the report.

Most of the road accidents in the 53 cities were due to either dangerous or careless driving or over-taking, accounting for 39% (3,269 deaths) of the total fatal road accidents during 2014.

“Over-speeding also caused 31.2% of fatal road accidents. Driving under influence of drugs/medicine had caused 3.1% of causalities in road accidents," the report said.

The highest number of fatal accidents due to drunken driving were reported from Vijayawada with 335 deaths. It was also found that most accidents—16.9%—were reported at a place close to residential areas, followed by pedestrian crossing (9.5%), and near schools/college/other educational institutions (6.7%).

Across India, over-speeding, careless driving and drunken driving were the main reasons for road accidents. As per NCRB, over-speeding accounted for 36.8% of the total accidents, causing 48,654 deaths and injuries to 48,654 persons.

It was closely followed by careless driving or overtaking, causing 137,808 road accidents and resulting in 42,127 deaths and injuries to 138,533 persons in 2014.

When it comes to pedestrian deaths, Kolkata closely followed Bangalore with 203 deaths.

Kolkata also had the maximum cases of road accidents at pedestrian crossings with 2,189 out of the total 7,770 cases.

The data also revealed that the national highways, which constitute only 1.58% of the total road length in India, accounted for the highest number of road accidents, contributing 27.5% to total road accidents.

National highways also saw the highest number of fatal road accidents—32.6% of the total—followed by state highways (27.8%).

A state-wise analysis revealed that most fatal road accidents on national highways took place in Uttar Pradesh (5,503 out of 46,110 deaths), followed by Tamil Nadu (5,189 deaths), Maharashtra (3,852 deaths), Rajasthan (3,561 deaths) and Karnataka (3,393 deaths).

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