The loss to the Indian economy due to fatalities and accident injuries estimated at 3% of GDP in 1999-2000, is particularly severe as 53.1% of road accident victims were in the age group of 25 to 65 years in 2010, with pedestrians, bicyclists and two-wheelers, who comprise the most unprotected road users, accounting for around 40% of all fatalities.
In India, the Motor vehicle population has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% during 2000-2009, fueled by a rising tide of motorization. Concomitantly, traffic risk and exposure have grown. During the year 2010, there were around 5 lakh persons in India. These numbers translate into 1 road accident every minute and 1 road accident death every four minutes.
The global annual cost of RTA is almost 230 billion dollars.
1.2 million People Die every year due to Road Traffic Accidents (RTA).
Every day, there are 3300 deaths and 6600 serious injuries on the road in the world.
Approximately 850,000 deaths occur in those who are under 45 years of age in developing countries and are the sole bread-winners for their families.
Road Traffic Accidents cause injury to about 50 million people in the world.
Every tenth bed in the hospital is occupied by an accident victim.
The average cost of RTA in developing countries is estimated at 65 billion dollars,
Trauma related death occurs in India every 1.9 minutes.
About 120,000 people die on the road in India every year and a majority of them are pedestrians.
1.27 Million People in India sustain serious injuries due to RTA.
Although India has only 1% of the world’s motor vehicles, but it accounts for 6% of the total global RTA deaths.
The cost of these accidents and death is Rs. 550 Crores or 12.5 billion dollars every year.
A majority of major accident survivors are either confined to the bed or wheel chair bound for the rest of their lives due to brain injury or spinal cord injury.
Alcohol intoxication causing RTA is present in 15-20% of all traffic accidents.
The best chance of survival from a serious RTA victim is, if they are brought into the casualty department within the first hour of trauma or the so called Golden hour.
A recent US survey conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) showed that 13 percent of the people killed in road accidents were not wearing seat belts. It has been documented that fastening seat belts properly prevented 12,000 fatalities and over 325,000 cases of serious injuries each year.
Injury (trauma) is the leading cause of death for all age groups under the age of 44. It remains to be one of the significant public health issues haunting the World. Yet the problem continues to go largely unrecognized. Motor vehicle crashes, fire injuries represent the two major causes of trauma and death. Drowning, falls and poisoning represent other common causes of trauma.
The most vulnerable road users, including pedestrians and bicyclists were the most severely hit in road accidents, accounting for more than 40 percent of the fatalities.
All these accidents are primarily due to bad infrastructure and rash driving. As road traffic accidents take the lives of nearly 1.3 million every year, and injure 20-50 million more in the world, India, along with China, is listed among countries with the highest number of deaths. Breaking road rules, rash driving, and failure to abide by the set speed limits, is a common sight on Indian roads. Most of the drivers do not use seat belts and refuse to wear helmets, thus a minor mishap at times turn ugly and leads to death.
Despite concrete laws and penalty levied on breaking road rules, the number of accidents on Indian roads is increasing every day. In fact, with the latest figures of deaths due to road accidents, India has overtaken China. Apart from not obeying road rules, it is observed that a lot of accidents also happen under the influence of alcohol. Youth aged between 15-29 years are the most common culprits as well as victims of such accidents. The report also says that over 90% of road traffic deaths and injuries occur in low-income and middle-income countries, which have only 48% of the world’s registered vehicles.
Road Accident Statistics (India):
Total accidental deaths during the year 2008
3,42,309
Traffic accidents during year 2008
4,45,468
Road accidents
4,15,855
Rail – Road accidents
2,134
Other Railway accidents
27,479
Rate of deaths per thousand vehicles in year 2007
1.3
Rate of deaths per thousand vehicles in year 2008
1.4
Increase of road accidents from year 2007 to year 2008
3.2%
21.2% victims of Road Accidents were occupants of ‘Truck/Lorry’.
Maximum ‘Road Accidents’ (66,811) were reported during 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Maximum number of accidents during April (38,059) and May (37,912)
Least in the month of September (32,217).
Road accidents in Tamil Nadu : 60,409 ( 14.5% of the total accidents in India )
The sad part of the story is that the brunt of rash-driving or drunk-driving is faced by pedestrians, cyclists or people traveling in the lighter vehicles. As per WHO around 13% of the victims from road-related deaths are pedestrians in India as compared to 15% from passenger cars and taxis and 27% of riders of motorized two or three wheelers.
The road traffic crashers, which cause grief and suffering for the family members of the deceased and injured, also result in economic losses to victims, their families, and nations as a whole, to the tune of 1-3% of their respective gross national product. Road accidents as per time of occurrence (2010):
Despite upgrading traffic management practices in order to check growing fatalities on roads, there has been a steady increase in the number of accidents over the last few years in the country. The traffic management practices should be upgraded. Our designs permit speed, but are not capable of handling it.