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NEW DELHI: India recorded 48 accidental deaths every hour last year, which was slightly higher than 2018, according to the latest report from the National Office of Criminal Records (NCRB). Deaths caused by traffic accidents, which include road and rail accidents, accounted for almost 44% of the total 4.1 lakh of accidental deaths, excluding deaths due to floods, avalanches, heatstroke and lightning.
Analysis of the cause of traffic accidents shows that almost 60% of all accidents that caused 86,241 deaths were due to speeding. Dangerous and careless driving or overtaking claimed 42,557 lives.
Interestingly, the report shows that the number of people killed by heart attacks rose to 28,000 last year compared to 23,900 in 2018, the maximum jump in deaths among all causes.
Road accidents accounted for a significant portion of road accident related deaths with 1.6 lakh out of a total 1.8 lakh deaths. According to NCRB, the total road fatalities were around 1.5 lakh in 2018. The data also shows that about 28,000 “rail accidents” claimed 24,619 lives and another 17.62 people were killed in “rail crossing accidents”. The report said that most states classified rail accidents in the unclassified category “other causes,” such as people falling from trains and approaching under trains.
The report says that of 4.2 lakhs of accidental deaths, 8,145 were due to forces of nature and the remainder were due to other causes. In 2019, there was an 18.2% increase in deaths from forces of nature and 2% from other causes compared to 2018.
Maharashtra recorded the highest number of accidental deaths (70,329), followed by Madhya Pradesh (42,431) and UP (40,596).
Almost 31% of the victims of accidental deaths were in the age group 30 to 45 years. The 53 megacities reported 61,404 accidental deaths during 2019 and the highest number of such deaths was reported in Mumbai (9,246), followed by Delhi (4,516) and Bengaluru (4,016).
According to the report, in the traffic accident category, which had the highest share of total fatalities, UP reported the highest fatalities at 27,661 followed by Maharashtra (18,524) and Madhya Pradesh (13,497). These three states accounted for 33% of the total deaths during 2019.
The report has highlighted that two-wheelers accounted for the highest fatality at 58,747, which was 38% of total road fatalities, followed by trucks / lorries, cars and buses. The majority of deaths from two-wheelers were recorded in Maharashtra (7,137) and UP (6,431).
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