India is the road accident Capital of the world with 20 deaths reported every hour and most of the victims are young adults. These figures pertain to 2023 and the official report says the mishap rate went up by 4.2 per cent adding 55 mishaps take place hour in the country.
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways report also noted that road accidents are multi-causal and are often the result of interplay of various factors like human error, road environment and vehicle condition.
In 2023, under the category of Traffic Rule Violations, over-speeding was a major killer, accounting for 68.1 per cent of the persons killed, followed by driving on the wrong side (5.5 per cent). “A total number of 4,80,583 road accidents have been reported by Police Departments of States and Union Territories (UTs) in the country during the calendar year 2023, claiming 1,72,890 lives and causing injuries to 4,62,825 persons,” the report titled ‘Road accidents in India 2023’ said.
For the fourth consecutive year in 2023, the report said the fatal road accident victims largely constitute young people in the productive age groups. “Young adults in the age group of 18-45 years accounted for 66.4 per cent of victims during 2023.