Question: What is the percentage of increase in the road accidents in India as per the recently released Road Accidents in India 2018 report by the Ministry of Road and Transport?
(a) 2%
(b) 1.46 %
(c) 0.46%
(d) 3.46%
Answer:
(a) 2%
(b) 1.46 %
(c) 0.46%
(d) 3.46%
Answer:
- On 19 November 2019, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has released the ‘Road Accidents in India, 2018’.
- It is an annual publication brought out by the Transport Research Wing of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways which reports on accidents, related deaths and injuries, calendar year-wise, based on information supplied by the Police Departments of States and UTs.
The major findings of the Report are as follows:
- As per the Report, Road accidents in the country have increased marginally by 0.46 % during 2018 with the year seeing 4,67,044 road accidents as against 4,64,910 in 2017.
- The fatalities during the same period have also risen by about 2.37% and 1,51,471 persons were killed in 2018 as against 1,47,913 in 2017.
- Road accident injuries have however showed a decrease of 0.33% in 2018 as compared to 2017.
- National Highways which comprise of 1.94 percent of total road network, accounted for 30.2 per cent of total road accidents and 35.7 per cent of deaths in 2018.
- State Highways which account for 2.97% of the road length accounted for 25.2 percent and 26.8 percent of accidents and deaths respectively.
- In terms of accident related killings by type of road user, the number of Pedestrians killed accounted for 15%, the share of cyclists was 2.4% and that of Two wheelers was 36.5%. Together these categories explain 53.9% of the accident related killings and are the most vulnerable category quite in line with global trends.
- During 2018, like the previous two years, young adults in the age group of 18 – 45 years accounted for nearly 69.6 percent of road accident victims. The working age group of 18 – 60 accounted for a share of 84.7 percent in the total road accident deaths.
- The number of hit and run cases in 2018 accounted for 18.9% of the deaths compared to 17.5% in 2017.
- The share of males in number of total accident deaths was 86% while the share of females hovered around 14% in 2018.
- Under the category of Traffic Rule Violations, over speeding is a major killer, accounting for 64.4% of the persons killed followed by driving on the wrong side of the road which accounted for 5.8% of the accident related death.
- Driving without valid license/learners license accounts for 13% of accidents. About 29% of deaths can be attributed to non use of helmets and 16% of deaths can be attributed to non use of seat belts.
- Vehicles more than 10 years accounted for 41% of accident related deaths. Overloaded vehicles accounted for about 12% deaths.
- As in 2017, the State of Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents in 2018. Similarly as in 2017, the number of persons killed in road accident was the highest in Uttar Pradesh in 2018.
Efforts being done by Government:
- Road traffic accidents are amenable to remedial actions and the Ministry has been implementing a multi pronged road safety strategy based on Education, Engineering (both of roads and vehicles), Enforcement and Emergency Care consisting inter-alia of setting up Driver training schools, creating awareness, strengthening automobile safety standards ,improving road infrastructure , carrying out road safety audit etc.
- A major initiative of the Ministry this year in the field of Road Safety has been the passing of the Motor Vehicle Amendment Bill 2019 which focuses on road safety measures which include, inter-alia, stiff hike in penalties for traffic violations, computerisation/automation of vehicle fitness and driving tests, recall of defective vehicles.
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