69% victims between 18-45 yrs as accidents reduce by 12.84% in 2020

New Delhi, May 26 (IANS) The Union government on Thursday said road accident parameters registered a significant decline in 2020 as compared to 2019 and total accidents decreased on an average by 18.46 per cent, the number of persons killed decreased by 12.84 per cent and the number of injuries decreased by 22.84 per cent.

As per report "Road Accidents in India -- 2020" prepared by Transport Research Wing of the Road Transport and Highways Ministry, the number of road accidents has been on decline since 2016 except for a marginal increase of 0.46 per cent in 2018.

For the second consecutive year, the total number of road accident fatalities has declined in 2020.

Similarly, the number of persons injured has been on the decline since 2015.

A total of 3,66,138 road accidents have been reported by states and Union Territories during 2020, which claimed 1,31,714 lives and caused 3,48,279 injuries.

In 2020, fatal road accident victims were largely youth between the age group of 18-45 years and accounted for 69 per cent of victims during 2020.

People in the working age group of 18-60 years share 87.4 per cent of total road accident fatalities.

The present volume of "Road accidents in India -- 2020" provides information on various parameters of road accidents in the country during 2020.

It has 10 sections and covers information relating to road accidents in the context of road length and vehicular population.

The data or information provided in this report is sourced from police departments of states or UTs collected on calendar year basis in standardised formats as provided by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific under the Asia Pacific Road Accident Data base project.

As per report, there has also been a decline in the number of fatal accidents involving at least one death.

A total of 1,20,806 fatal accidents were reported in 2020, which is 12.23 per cent lower than the 2019 figure of 1,37,689.

During 2020, national highways, state highways and other roads reported less number of accidents, fatalities and injuries as compared to 2019.

The major states that achieved significant reduction in road accidents in 2020 are Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The major states that achieved significant reduction in road accident fatalities in 2020 are Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.