Overspeeding claimed more lives in India last year among all road accidents

Overspeeding remains the biggest killer on Indian roads. The recent road accident report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) shows that over two-third of the victims who died in 2021 were involved in cases of overspeeding of vehicles. The report stated that there were nearly three lakh road accidents that took place last year due to overspeeding, in which more than 1.07 lakh people died. The fatality figure is much higher than 91,239 deaths recorded in the previous year.

According to the ministry's report, overspeeding is a major killer, accounting for more than 70 per cent of fatalities in 2021 under the category of Traffic Rule Violations. Drunken driving and wrong-side driving was the second and third biggest cause of accidents and fatalities last year. Overall, 1.53 lakh people lost their lives due to road accidents across the country last year. The fatality figure is higher than 2020, when 1,31,714 deaths were recorded in 3,66,138 road accidents.

This is the third year in a row when overspeeding has been the biggest cause of all road accidents in India. In 2019, the year before Covid restrictions kicked in, around 71 per cent of the 4.49 lakh road accidents in the country were due to overspeeding.

The largest number of victims in road accidents last year have been young people aged between 18 years and 45 years. The report by the ministry said young adults in the age group of 18-45 years accounted for 67.6 per cent of victims during 2021, while people in working age group of 18-60 years share 84.5 per cent of total road accident fatalities.

Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents on National Highways in 2021, whereas, the number of persons killed in road accidents was the highest in Uttar Pradesh.