[TusharK]

According to a media report, more than 1.2 lakh people lost their lives in various road accidents in 2020. Even at a time when the country was under lockdown, the average number of deaths stood at 328 people per day or 14 deaths per hour.



While the number of deaths caused due to road accidents was high, it was 12.2% less compared to 2019. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), almost 4 lakh people have died due to negligence in road accidents in the last 3 years.

In 2020, the total number of those injured in accidents caused due to rash and negligent driving stood at 1.30 lakh, which was 30,000 less than the 2019 figure and 36,000 less than the total cases reported in 2018.

52 people died in rail accidents in 2020. In 2019, 55 deaths were recorded, while in 2018, this figure was 35 deaths.

Link to Team-BHP News

[SmartCat]

It would be wrong to attribute so many deaths to 'hit and run' incidents. Even if the driver stayed back & called the ambulance or shifted the pedestrian to the hospital himself, it might have still resulted in death - there is no way to know.

But sure, the likelihood of deaths in hit & run incidents is higher because of 'golden hour' principle.

[anumod]

So that means we need to work in the same way as we prevent an epidemic/pandemic. In 2020 we had 1,48,994 deaths due to Covid. If people were travelling at the same rate in 2020 too, then we may have similar number from the accident cases as well. Let's hope, Govt will realize this and work heavily on this aspect. Another important point to be noted in this aspect, around 85K injured very grievously in 2020. I consider this aspect is more severe to the country , because they are continuing for bed ridden for months or years by taking a pie from the per capita income. I strongly encourage the Govt to see how we can have very stricter norms for giving license, that will improve the situation a lot.

[allinbalance]

Apart from much tougher licensing standards for drivers, I also believe that all cases of violation of traffic rules should be fined much higher. In a country where cost is a supreme consideration, I believe hitting the pocket will give a big incentive to those taking traffic rules and safety too lightly - get real serious about them.

One reason for hope is that I notice the Gen Z (my daughter's 19) is actually much wiser and more aware / concerned with safety and traffic rules in general. Perhaps this generation may tip over the abysmal situation with some positive help from the government / police.

[CarNerd]

As per World Bank report, India has 1% of world's vehicles but has 11% of global deaths which is the highest in the world.

Every 1 person is killed every 4 minutes. Also, a recent study by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) estimates the crash costs at Rs 5.96 lakh crore or 3.14 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and 76.2 per cent of people who are killed in road crashes are in their prime working-age of 18-45 years.

I think the main reasons for such accidents are:
1) Lack of traffic rule knowledge
2) Overspeeding/Rash driving
3) Arrogance/Me first attitude

Unless there is proper enforcement of rules and procedures to get driving license, such accidents will continue to happen.

[RaghuVis]

Didn't India have a huge amount of lockdown period during 2020? The figures are shocking, sad and numbing!

[AKSarkar1]

Thanks for sharing these alarming figures. End of the day I feel this is a deadly cocktail with mainly two ingredients IMHO:

1) Lack of infrastructure around transportation: Of course I mean infrastructure in the literal sense i.e. roads, highways etc but also facilities such as RTOs which grant licences being way too lenient with who all they give licenses to. Doesn't matter how good/bad the infrastructure is in the literal sense of the term, if the issuing authorities are incompetent and corrupt obviously the roads will be full of bad drivers. I personally see RTOs and driving tests as 'filters' to stop idiots from getting on the roads but sadly these filters aren't working.

2) Bad driving habits: One thing is for sure that education doesn't translate into road manners. In Mumbai at least I see far too many people who are seemingly educated white-collared folks behaving like absolute hooligans when it comes to driving. For cities like Mumbai, the people are so used to driving in single-digit bumper-to-bumper traffic speeds that they go absolutely bezerk as soon as they get an empty stretch of road like the Sealink. While the lack of normal city driving manners is something I can yet tolerate, lack of driving manners is something that I can't tolerate as the consequences of a crash is more severe at 100 km/h over a 15-20 km/h crash.

While I feel the first problem is something that we can't directly solve, the second problem is something that we can collectively solve together. Without a doubt, forums like our TeamBHP have/will continue to play a pivotal role in imbibing the best practices when it comes to navigating the Indian driving scene.

[Arun Varma]

Tragic! I believe we are in desperate need for a heightened awareness, practice and discourse around defensive driving. All too often, in too many forums, the talk is around the acceleration, the thrill of the high speed drive and so on. While there is merit in discussions about improving the road infrastructure, controlling what we can, which is better individual driving behaviour and proper vehicular upkeep will go a long way in minimising the loss of precious lives and the impact it has on families and loved ones.

[AZT]

2020 was 6 months of mostly staying indoors so those numbers are actually more horrific than 2019. I'd also guess reporting is getting better so could be earlier cases were getting under reported.

Either way, figures like these are also why we have 80 kmph speed limits.

[wildsdi5530]

As long as Fender benders are ignored and not considered as accidents, As long as only fatalities are considered deserving of attention, the figures are just going to get worse.

Look at Dubai, where a fender bender is penalized by a fine for both parties, People there maintain a gap between vehicles.

In our country, it's ok to scrape a vehicle to get past it to jump the signal when others are waiting. Where 2-wheelers are offered freedom from traffic violations in exchange of their lives (they are penalized only for helmetlesss riding and silencer modification, never for signal jumping or oneway riding).

If every accident, however trivial is treated as a crime without people asked to compromise on the scene and leave, then safety will rule. Having a 40kmph speed limit on a 10 lane ring road had just boosted the police coffers in Bangalore rather than reducing the accidents caused but a loose stone in the fast lane, barely 100mts from the checking spot.

Of course this would increase our numbers to 1.2 lakh accidents per hour, and that would reduce our World Bank funding of road projects.

[deathwalkr]

From my myopic observations, i felt that during those covid times, cops were utilized for covid regulatory enforcement and there was a drastic reduction in the number of cops on road especially at major junctions.

Due to less traffic, people started driving more rashly.

[SLK]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Due to less traffic, people started driving more rashly.

True. To add to this, a lot of inexperienced drivers, who could afford a car but used public transport earlier came out on the roads. There has been a drastic reduction in the quality of drivers.

Also over the years there has been a continuous increase in interstate road traffic (generally for tourism). As soon as lock-down was opened almost everyone rushed out of station, with most people with no idea and experience of high speed driving. Some are so scared to drive on highways that they don't seem to cross 60-70kmph and others think the entire range on the speedo is meant to be used everytime.

[ashwin1224]

I have been extremely vocal about this with my peers and family members, our roads are death traps, through absolutely no fault of our own we could change from a person to a statistic. Everything and everyone is at fault. There are so many flaws in the infrastructure, lack of training, unsafe vehicles which might even not be road-worthy and just a general disregard of the other with a complete lack of empathy. The only way any of us can do anything is to talk about it, on every possible platform and to everyone we can. We need to drive defensively, keep our vehicles maintained, stick to schedules so we don't need to overspeed and perhaps most importantly think at least 10 seconds.

It is an extremely common sight where we'll have long lines in traffic where a vehicle needs to make a U turn or take a turn across the other lane but they won't get a chance since no one would let them cross. If just one car would slow down and let the other pass, no one else would have been inconvenienced by the traffic congestion. But no, nobody thinks that far ahead, nobody thinks of the other. It would not even make a difference to anyone's commute if they slowed or even stopped for a minute to let traffic congestions clear out. We need to ease off this aggression and tell our peers to do the same.

I've felt this change in a lot of the people I've spoken to about this. They're not driving enthusiasts but now they drive a lot better just by being calmer, it's not a complicated or life altering behaviour change either. No one is doing this because no one has spoken to them about it, maybe. At least I hope that's the case.

[Tucker48]

The govt needs to understand the difference between a road and a street and educate people on the same.

A pedestrian or a cyclist has no right to be on a road.

A street gives equal rights to everyone using it.

Only penalizing drivers or riders isn't the solution, fine every offender including the owners of animals found on a road and put strays in shelters.

But again car owners are electorally insignificant as compared to jaywalkers. The contributors to this high death rate are govt, bureaucracy, courts, objects/animals/people on road and then the drivers/riders, in the mentioned order IMO.

[warp_10]

I think Indian roads / infrastructure as root cause it is just a scapegoat. I believe if drivers are bad and negligent, accidents are bound to happen even in advanced nations.

If we were to compare US and India, there were ~36000 deaths in 2018 and in 2019.

https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality...state-by-state

Yes, US has 4x+ the size of roads than what we have, but logically its offset with our density. Its true that we are pathetic driving sense, but once you get too much of technology and infrastructure, I believe drivers would get too lax.