Road fatalities rose by 4.4% in Haryana in 2022, shows transport ministry data

Haryana was ranked 14th among states with the highest number of accidents, while last year it was ranked 13th

Haryana witnessed 4,915 fatalities from road accidents in 2022, which is 4.4% more than that reported in 2021, revealed a nationwide report on accidents released by a Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH).

The number of road accidents in the state also rose from 9,933 in 2021 to 10,429 in 2022, which is 5% rise year on year, showed the data. (ANI)

The number of road accidents in the state also rose from 9,933 in 2021 to 10,429 in 2022, which is 5% rise year on year, showed the data. These figures show that despite steps being taken by the Haryana government, there has not been a significant dip in the road accidents or fatalities happening on roads in the state.

Haryana was ranked 14th among states with the highest number of accidents, while last year it was ranked 13th. The report said rural areas witnessed more accidents as compared to urban areas and the fatality rate stood at 5.7. The data showed that neighbouring Punjab has a rate of 4.2 while Delhi has a rate of only 1.2.

Fatality rate is measured by the number of road accident fatalities per 10,000 vehicles. As per the data, Haryana witnessed 11,238 accidents in 2018, 10,944 accidents in 2019, 9,431 accidents in 2020, 9,933 in 2021 and 10,429 accidents in 2022.

As far as fatalities are concerned, Haryana witnessed 5,118 fatalities in 2018, 5,057 in 2019, 4,507 in 2020, 4,706 in 2021 and 4,915 in 2020.

Anurag Kulshreshtha, founder president, TRAX, a road safety NGO, said the reason behind the rise in accidents in Haryana is that expressways and highways have been developed rapidly, and these witness high speed traffic movement, which leads to accidents.

“The entry/exits of expressways need major redesign. In Gurugram, Sirhaul toll plaza is a prime example of faulty design -- there traffic from four lanes ends up on 18 lanes which then moves forward to four lanes. This causes major jams and congestion,” he said.

The Delhi-Chandigarh highway, he said, similarly has bottlenecks that need to be removed. “Traffic enforcement needs to improve significantly ,” he said.

Amit Bhatt, managing director (India) of the International Council on Clean Transportation, a non-profit public policy think tank, said design of roads has to be such that it promotes safety of road users with minimum interventions and enforcement. “There is increase in infrastructure and road users and pressure is much more on roads and this causes road accidents. Till now, the focus is on awareness but we need to change design, make better engineering interventions and have improved infrastructure,” he said.

Haryana transport minister Mool Chand Sharma said serious efforts are being made to reduce accidents on state roads and for that, state road safety committee and district road safety committees are taking regular action. “We are also launching a special project in Haryana to bring together the best practices in road safety and develop systems to prevent accidents and deaths in collaboration with other agencies. “

Sharma said plan is to introduce effective speed calming measures, and conduct comprehensive road safety surveys, monitor behaviour of road users, evaluate the width of road shoulders, conduct structured crash investigations, and launch awareness programmes.

“We have been able to ensure that these numbers don’t rise significantly despite a rise in number of vehicles and expansion of road network in Haryana,” he said.

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