16 people killed every hour in road accidents in 2014: report

Road accidents claimed 16 lives every hour in the country in 2014.

The latest report on road accident related deaths released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) said 51 accidents claiming 16 lives took place every hour across the country last year.

The report said a total of 1,41,526 people were killed and 4,77,731 injured in over 4.5 road accidents last year.

The road deaths amounted to 83.7 per cent of fatalities in traffic accidents last year in the country with 25,006 deaths (14.8 per cent) reported in rail mishaps and 2,547 deaths (1.5 per cent) at railway crossings.

Deaths due to road accidents also increased by 2.9 per cent in 2014 against 1,37,423 deaths in 2013.

State-wise figures “Tamil Nadu (67,250 accidents) followed by Maharashtra (44,382 cases), Karnataka (43,694 cases), Madhya Pradesh (39,698 cases) and Kerala (35,872 cases) have reported the maximum number of road accidents, accounting for 14.9 per cent, 9.8 per cent, 9.7 per cent, 8.8 per cent and eight per cent respectively of accidents in the country,” the report said.

The maximum fatalities, the report said, were reported from Uttar Pradesh, followed by Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra during the said period.

Dangerous highways The data said two-wheeler riders were the maximum people killed in these accidents at 26.4 per cent, followed by riders of trucks/lorries (20.1 per cent), cars (12.1 per cent) and buses (8.8 per cent).

It also said national highways claimed more lives in these accidents at 27.5 per cent, followed by State highways at 25.2 per cent.

Most of the road accidents were due to over-speeding (36.8 per cent), which caused 48,654 deaths and left 1,81,582 persons injured.

Dangerous/careless driving or overtaking caused 1,37,808 road accidents that caused 42,127 deaths and 1,38,533 injuries in 2014.

About 3.2 per cent of road accidents were due to poor weather conditions, the report said.