Mumbai’s roads most unsafe, witnessed most mishaps in 2012

A 2012 report of the ministry of road transport and highways says the city witnessed the highest number of road accidents at 24,592 last year. Of them, 471 were fatal ones leaving 488 people dead and 4,543 others injured.

Mumbai’s roads are among the most unsafe among 50 cities having a population of more than 10 lakh in the country.

A 2012 report of the ministry of road transport and highways says the city witnessed the highest number of road accidents at 24,592 last year. Of them, 471 were fatal ones leaving 488 people dead and 4,543 others injured.

Chennai and Delhi with 9,663 and 6,937 accidents respectively came second and third in the list of cities with the highest number of road mishaps.

The report was based on the data collected by the transport research wing of the ministry of road transport and highways.

Mumbai traffic police, however, claimed that the total number of fatal accidents and other major and minor accidents in the city were consistently on the decline.

“Minor accidents might have reflected in the report, otherwise the numbers of all accidents including fatal ones have gone down,” said Vivek Phansalkar, JCP, traffic. Mumbai has 22 lakh registered vehicles and a road length of 1,963 km. Most metros, however, have more number of vehicles than Mumbai and longer road network.

It ranks eighth and third in the number of persons killed and injured respectively, according to the report by the ministry of road transport and highways.

With 13.5% of the total number of accidents, Maharashtra ranks second in the number of accidents.