More fatalities caused by driver's mistake, including use of mobile phones while driving

Indian roads became deadlier than ever in 2016, with a total of 1.51 lakh people dying in 4.81 lakh accidents, as per official data released on Wednesday. This denotes a 3% increase in fatalities over the previous year, even as the number of accidents declined by 4.1%, indicating a rise in the severity of accidents.

In 2016, 55 accidents and 17 deaths took place every hour, which works out to a death every 3.5 minutes on Indian roads, according to the report, ‘Road Accidents in India 2016’, released by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.

The total number of road accidents came down last year when compared to 2015 by 4.14%

The report noted with concern that the share of fatal accidents and seriously injured accidents in total accidents rose to 28.3% and 25.1% of total road accidents during 2016, as against 26.3% and 23.9% respectively in 2015.

The accident severity, a crucial indicator defined in terms of the number of persons killed by 100 accidents, stood at an all-time high of 31.4 in 2016, compared with 29.1 in 2015, and 28.5 in 2014. The number of persons injured in road accidents declined by 1.1% and totalled 4.95 lakh in 2016.

The total number of road accident-related deaths rose by over 3% last year as compared to 2015

The report also noted that 1.8% of the people killed were using their mobile phones while driving, and held this behaviour responsible for causing the accident. Two-wheeler riders were the most vulnerable road users, with their percentage share in fatalities at 34.8%, followed by car, taxi and van users at 17.9%. Out of the 52,500 two-wheeler riders killed in 2016, 19.3% were not wearing helmets.

The fault of the driver in road accidents soared to 84% in 2016, compared to 77.1% in 2015, with the main fault being over-speeding.

Tamil Nadu the number of road accidents, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka

Among cities, Chennai had the highest number of road accidents (7,486) while Delhi had the highest fatalities (1,591) in 2016. The accident severity in 50 cities with over a million population rose sharply to 19.8 in 2016, as compared with 14.9% in 2015.

Among states, Tamil Nadu topped the total number of road accidents with a percentage share of 14.9%, followed by Madhya Pradesh (11.2 per cent), and Karnataka (9.2 per cent).

The official figures revealed for the first time that drivers who were minors (younger than 18 years of age) were involved in 4% of the total accidents and 3.5% of the fatal accidents. Drivers aged 25-35 years were involved in the most number of accidents during 2016. Around 83% of the people killed in accidents belonged to the working age group of 18-60 years.

“This is the biggest concern for us, as it signifies the loss of an earning member in a family,” Road Transport and Highways Secretary Yudhvir Singh Malik said.

Concerned by the high rate of fatal accidents, Mr. Gadkari said that a district-level road safety committee will be formed to monitor the road safety record in the area. This committee would be headed by the Member of Parliament of the constituency, he added.