151,417 road fatalities in 2018
467,044 road traffic accidents
479,418 injuries registered in 2018 Children below 18 years accounted for 9977 (6.6%) road deaths and Young & adults in age group of 18 – 35 years accounted for 72,737 (48%) deaths

Least one can say about these facts are that they are alarming!

Road traffic continues to be a major developmental issue, a public health concern and is a leading cause of death and injury across the world killing more than 1.35 million globally in 2016 as reported in the Global Status report on Road Safety 2018 with 90% of these casualties taking place in the developing countries.

India, unfortunately ranks at the top with the highest number of fatalities at about 11% share in the world. It is followed by China and US. The “Road accidents in India 2018″ is an effort by the Ministry to highlight the state-wise data and causes of the accidents and fatalities.

The total number of accident related deaths in 2018 stood at 1,51,417 an increase of 2.3% from 2017. About 85% of the accident related deaths happen in the most productive age group of 18-60. Road accidents deaths not only cause severe trauma to the family of the victim but they also result in huge economic loss to the nation. Consumer VOICE remains deeply committed to reducing road accidents in the country and has been taking several measures to reduce the same.

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The most important initiative taken by the Ministry this year in respect of Road Safety has been the enactment of the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act 2019 which, provides for a sharp hike in penalties for traffic violations. The other provisions of the Act include setting up of a National Road Safety Board, protection of “Good Samaritan”, cashless treatment during golden hour, provision of third party insurance, constitution of a Motor Vehicle fund with increased compensation for hit and run, automated fitness testing for vehicles, introduction of the provision for recall of vehicles etc.

Overview of Road Accidents in India:

 A total of 4,67,044 road accidents have been reported by States and Union Territories (UTs) in the calendar year 2018, claiming 1,51,417 lives and causing injuries to 4,69,418 persons. In percentage terms, in 2018, the number of accidents has increased by 0.46 percent, persons killed has increased by 2.4%  and injuries have decreased by 0.33 percent over 2017. Road accident severity measured by the number of persons killed per 100 accidents, has seen an increase of 0.6 percentage points in 2018 over the previous year.

During 2018, like the previous two years, young adults in the age group of 18 – 45 years accounted for nearly 69.6 percent of road accident victims. The working age group of 18 – 60 accounted for a share of 84.7 percent in the total road accident deaths.