E-Paper
Over 24k lives lost last year as road mishaps log rise in U.P.
Uttar Pradesh recorded 46,052 road accidents in 2024, resulting in 24,118 deaths, maintaining its status as the state with the highest fatalities in India.
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Despite all efforts and road safety campaigns, there’s no let-up in road accidents and resultant fatalities in Uttar Pradesh--the state that has the dubious distinction of ranking number one in the number of accident fatalities in the country.
Continuing the upward trend, Uttar Pradesh recorded 46,052 road accidents between January and December 2024, resulting in 24,118 deaths and 34,665 injuries, according to a district-wise report by the transport department.
The number of road accidents, deaths and injuries in 2024 vis-à-vis 2023 in Uttar Pradesh grew by 1,518 (3.4%), 4,66 (2%) and 3,567 (11.5%), respectively. In 2023, as many as 23,652 people had lost their lives and 31,098 were injured in 44,534 road mishaps.
In 2024, Lucknow ranked highest among all districts in the state in terms of road accidents and injuries, while it stood fourth as far as fatalities were concerned. While the number of deaths remains high, the year-on-year increase in road accident deaths was just 2%, marking the lowest growth in recent years. In comparison, the increase in fatalities was 6.2% in 2023 and 4.7% in 2022.
Commenting on the report, additional transport commissioner P Satyarthi said, “We have managed to bring down the growth in road accident fatalities to 2% this year. However, this is still not satisfactory. Further efforts will be made to address the situation in the future.”
The report revealed that 37 districts, including Lucknow, Ghaziabad, and Agra, saw an increase in road accident deaths in 2024 as compared to 2023. In contrast, 35 districts such as Meerut, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Aligarh, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Bareilly and Gorakhpur, reported a decrease. Two districts, Maharajganj and Azamgarh, recorded no change in their death tolls.
Auraiya reported the steepest decline in road accident deaths with 20.8% drop, followed by Sant Kabir Nagar (20.1%) and Etawah (15.8%). On the other hand, Kheri witnessed the highest increase in fatalities at 98.1%, followed by Ambedkar Nagar (39%) and Shamli (27.3%).
In terms of absolute numbers, Hardoi reported the highest death toll with 609 fatalities, followed by Mathura (591), Agra (586), Lucknow (576) Kanpur Nagar (560). Lucknow also led in the number of injuries caused by road accidents, reporting 1,630 incidents, with 1,165 people injured—the highest in the state.
Lucknow also recorded the most road accidents in 2024 at 1,630, followed by Lucknow Kanpur Nagar (1,448) Gorakhpur (1,276) and Prayagraj (1,246). After Lucknow, Bareilly and Kanpur Nagar reported the highest number of injured persons, with 1,160 and 1,132 injuries, respectively. In 2023 also, Lucknow reported the highest number of road mishaps.
It is noteworthy that Uttar Pradesh continues to lead all states in reporting the highest number of road accident fatalities, despite a comparatively lower number of accidents. However, the national data for 2024, showing state-wise position is yet to be released.
