Road accidents rose to 75,000 in major metros in 2012

NEW DELHI: Number of road accidents rose 16 per cent to 75,000, killing about 9,800 people in major metro cities in the year 2012, Rajya Sabha was informed today.

As many as 1,866 people lost their lives in the National Capital Region in 2012 in road accidents, whereas Mumbai recorded the maximum number of mishaps at 24,592 during the year, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Krishanpal Gurjar informed the Upper House of the Parliament.

"The road accidents in 20 metro cities increased to 75,074 during 2012 from 64,845 in 2011," Gurjar said.

The number of casualties in major metro cities, including Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad, rose 21 per cent in 2012 to 9,798 from 8,108 in the previous year.

Chennai was second both in terms of accidents and casualties. The city saw 9,663 accidents with 1,401 casualties.

The National Capital of Delhi was third in terms of number of accidents during 2012 at 6,937, followed by Bangalore (5,508) and Indore (5,433).

Temple town of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh reported least number of road accidents (379) among the 20 major cities. In these accidents, 216 people were killed.

Bangalore registered 725 deaths from road accidents in 2012, followed by Patna (509), Kolkata (498) and Lucknow (497).

The Minister said the government has formulated a National Road Safety Policy which outlines various policy measures such as promoting awareness, establishing road safety information data base, encouraging safer road infrastructure including enforcement of safety laws etc.