Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of road accidents on its network of National Highways in 2022 with 64,105 accidents. The State saw 17,884 fatalities due to road accidents, according to Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) statistics.
In the entire country, a total number of 4,61,312 road accidents have been reported during the calendar year 2022, claiming 1,68,491 lives and causing injuries to 4,43,366 persons. Tamil Nadu’s 64,105 accidents form 13.9% of all accidents that happened in the country last year. It was followed by Madhya Pradesh with 54,432 accidents.
The State retained its top position in 2022 for the fifth consecutive year. There were 22,961 accidents on National Highways in 2018, 21,489 accidents in 2019, 18,372 accidents in 2020, 16,869 accidents in 2021 and 18,972 accidents on NHs in 2022.
However, Tamil Nadu stood second when it came to number of fatalities due to road accidents with 17,884 deaths amounting to 10.6% of the total lives lost. Uttar Pradesh with 22,595 deaths topped this dreary chart when it came to casualties.
As for the reasons for accidents, the data for 2022 revealed that 67% of accidents occurred on straight roads and vehicle speed tends to be high on straight roads in open areas which ties in with the high percentage of road accidents, persons killed and injured. Road sections where construction work was in progress had accounted for 2% of the total accidents.
A retired highways engineer said that most accidents on National Highways happened near junctions and places without medians. “For example, the Chennai – Bangalore Highway has important junctions, including Maduravoyal, Thiruverkadu and Thirumazhisai. But these junctions do not have any kind of flyover or underpass, which leads to accidents as vehicles tend to overspeed. Though the National Highways Authority of India collects high toll amounts, it is not ploughing back that amount in the form of necessary road safety infrastructure in the State,” he explained.
There are no pedestrian facilities either. In some locations, proposals for overbridges have been dropped citing the proposal to construct elevated corridors. Until these are completed, the accidents will continue, he added.
