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Fifth-highest number of road mishap deaths in India last year took place in Kanpur
The city also reported the highest crash severity (persons killed per 100 crashes) in the country in 2019, says the Union transport and national highways ministry’s annual report
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Kanpur reported the fifth-highest road accident fatalities and the highest crash severity in the country in 2019, according to an annual Union road transport and highways ministry report.
Delhi (1,463) topped the list of cities with the highest deaths due to road accidents followed by Jaipur (1,283), Chennai (1,283), and Bengaluru (768). Kanpur reported 692 deaths even as its population is much lesser than the four cities and only one-fourth of that of Delhi.
At 45.5, the crash severity in Kanpur was the highest among the cities with over one million population. Road crash severity is the number of people killed per 100 crashes. Over 45 people died per 100 road accidents in Kanpur.
Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai, and Bengaluru were other four cities with high severity at 26.1, 30, 18.4, and 16.4.
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Uttar Pradesh’s transport commissioner, Dheeraj Sahu, said Kanpur is a crowded city with a greater concentration of vehicular traffic. He added it could be the possible reason for more deaths as well as the high crash severity.
Piyush Tewari, the head of the NGO SaveLIFE Foundation, said poor road infrastructure, weak enforcement of traffic laws, and lack of prompt emergency care appear to be other important reasons for more deaths and the highest crash severity in Kanpur.
Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous states, topped the list of states with maximum road crash deaths in the country in 2019. It accounted for 15% of the total 1,51,113 deaths in road accidents across the country with 22,655 fatalities. Maharashtra accounted for 8.5% and Madhya Pradesh 7.4%.
Road crash deaths in the country decreased only marginally by 0.2% to 1,51,113 from 1,51,417 in 2018.
The crash severity is Uttar Pradesh was found to be 53.2 which was higher than the all-India average of 33.7.
With 2,688 deaths, Uttar Pradesh accounted for 24% of fatalities of children in road accidents in 2019.
In terms of the number of road accidents, Tamil Nadu (12.7%) topped the list of states followed by Madhya Pradesh (11.3%) and Uttar Pradesh (9.5%). Crashes per 100,000 population in Uttar Pradesh were 18.7. It is also lower than in Tamil Nadu (81.4) and Madhya Pradesh (62.5).
Tewari said poor compliance of rules with regard to wearing helmets and seat belts as well as lack of medical care were important factors that explain why Uttar Pradesh has more deaths despite lesser crashes than other states.
Sahu said a better road network that allows vehicles to ply at higher speeds was also one of the reasons for more deaths in Uttar Pradesh. “But if you measure the deaths per 100,000 as well as the vehicular number, you will find the number of road accident deaths is not the highest in Uttar Pradesh,” he said. “We are taking a lot of measures to effectively reduce the number of both accidents and deaths.”
