NEW DELHI: Over 1.7 lakh persons were killed in road accidents in 2023. That translates to an average of 474 lives lost every day or one death almost every three minutes, as per data shared by states with central govt. This is the highest number of people killed in a year since govt started collating road accident data at the national level to assess the extent of the problem and reasons behind crashes .
The data also indicates how the burden of injuries due to road crashes is also on the rise as last year, a maximum of nearly 4.63 lakh people were left injured, which was 4% more than in 2022.In 2022, the number of road fatalities stood at over 1.6 lakh as per the report published by road transport ministry while data collated by National Crime Record Bureau had put the number of fatalities at 1.7 lakh. Both the agencies have not yet published the road accident data for 2023.
TOI has learnt that at least 21 states and UTs, including UP, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Punjab, Assam and Telangana, recorded an increase in road deaths compared to 2022 while there was a marginal decline in fatalities in states/UTs such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Kerala and Chandigarh.