Annual Report on Road Accidents in India – 2018

On 19^th November, 2019, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway released the Road Accidents in India- 2018. It is an annual publication brought out by the Transport Research Wing of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways which reports on accidents, related deaths and injuries, calendar year-wise, based on information supplied by the Police Departments of States and UTs.

Key Findings

• Road accidents in the country have increased marginally by 0.46 % during 2018. More than 1.5 lakh people lost their lives in road crashes in the country in 2018, registering an increase of 2.4% as compared to the year before, when there were 1.47 lakh fatalities.
• The Compound annual growth rate of accidents as well as accident related deaths in the period 2010-2018 dropped drastically and was the least when compared with the previous decades, despite the very high rate of growth of automobiles.
• National Highways accounted for 30.2 percent of total road accidents and 35.7 per cent of deaths in 2018. State Highways accounted for 25.2 percent and 26.8 percent of accidents and deaths respectively.
• In terms of accident related killings by type of road user, the number of Pedestrians killed accounted for 15%, the share of cyclists was 2.4% and that of two wheelers was 36.5%. Together these categories explain 53.9% of the accident related deaths and are the most vulnerable category quite in line with global trends.
• The share of males in number of total accident deaths was 86% while the share of females hovered around 14% in 2018.
• Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents in 2018 while the highest numbers reported as killed in 2018 were in Uttar Pradesh.