There was a dip in accidents during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they have increased steadily since

• In the last 5 years, 2022 had the highest number of fatalities.

• Over 60,000 fatalities happened on national highways, which account for only 2 percent of roads in the country.

• 2020 had the least accidents, mostly due to the lockdowns that reduced the number of cars on the roads.

Road safety has been a long-term concern for India, with various programs in progress to curb the high number of accidents and related fatalities. However, according to a new report on road accidents in 2022 published by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), road fatalities have been on the rise since the country opened up after the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2018 to 2022, over 21 lakh accidents have happened on the country’s roads, costing the lives of over 7.7 lakh people. For a more detailed insight, have a look at the number of accidents that have happened each year.

The Last 5 Years

There was a big drop in road accidents in 2020, which is when the pandemic led to lockdowns across the country, taking many road users off the road. Number of accidents started to rise in 2021, and last year, this number started to inch closer to the worrying high tally of 2018. 

Worse still, the number of lives lost was highest in 2022 in the last five years, accounting for a percentage increase of 6.9 percent compared to 2018. In 2022, out of all the accidents that happened, 33.8 percent were fatal for at least one person involved, while the other resulted in injuries to the driver and occupants. Compared to 2021, the fatalities increased by 9.4 percent and the number of people getting injured increased by 15.3 percent. 

Where Do Most Accidents Happen?

As per the data provided by the MoRTH study, almost 33 percent of total accidents in 2022 occurred on national highways, which is only 2 percent of all the roads in the country. The ‘other roads’ in India, as per the report, include district, rural, urban and project roads, which combined contribute to 95 percent of the road length of the country, but were the locations for 44 percent of all accidents.

What The Future Looks Like

While the number of accidents seems to be increasing compared to the previous years, we also have to understand that the number of cars plying on the roads in the country is also on the rise. In the future, as carmakers work on making their cars safer with more standard safety features and better build quality, and the government makes better and safer roads for commuting, we can hope to see a fall in these grim numbers. 

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Till then, we can work on doing our part in making the roads safer for travel, by following the traffic rules, driving responsibly even when others around us may not, and keeping a check on the condition of our vehicle to avoid any mishap.