UP, TN, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan accounted for over 40% road fatalities in 2014

NEW DELHI: The top five states on the list of road accident fatalities -Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan -accounted for over 40 per cent of the deaths in 2014. UP topped the list with 16,284 deaths, but Tamil Nadu with over 15,000 lives lost was much worse given its relatively smaller size. Learning from global practices, this is for the first time crashes and deaths have been analyzed under 13 categories -both state-wise and citywise -such as the causes of crashes, place of occurrence and culpability .

For example, the report notes how about one in six road crashes was reported at a place near a residential area both in rural and urban zones. It also records that 5.3 per cent of road crashes were reported at places near schools, colleges or other educational institutions.

"It's interesting that more detailed data is included in the report. But unless police investigations are scientifically carried out, the collation and evaluation of data has no relevance," said road safety expert Rohit Baluja.



Times View

Civilised, modern societies treat the loss of human life very seriously and hence go to great lengths to ensure they are minimised. India is a large country, but even so 1.4 lakh deaths a year on our roads is too large a number to be treated as normal. That's nearly 400 people dying every day. Reducing that number to zero may be impossible, but cutting it to a fraction of its current level should be possible with fairly simple measures like strict enforcement of traffic rules, ensuring dividers on all major roads and better street lighting. Governments at all levels must take this task seriously. Road safety has to be taken up in mission mode rather than left to the token week every year.