On September 4, former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry, 54, died in a car accident while he was on his way to Mumbai from Ahmedabad. The incident occurred in the afternoon when the car he was travelling in ran into a divider on the Charoti bridge in Kasa village, about 150 km from Mumbai. The industrialist’s death has brought attention to the rising number of road accident-related fatalities in India. Last year, despite a significant reduction in road accidents from pre-pandemic levels, there were more than 1.5 lakh deaths across India. This was the highest in at least a decade. Read more about this recent trend here:
In 2021, across India, a median road accident victim was a male aged between 18 and 44 who drove a two-wheeler, was speeding, driving carelessly or hastily overtaking other vehicles. Road accidents peaked late evening. The number increased in winter and declined during peak summer in almost all the States. Of the victims, 86% were men.
Road accidents constituted about 40% of the total accidental deaths in the country. About 56% of those who died in accidents (including road accidents) were aged between 18 and 45. The NCRB did not provide an age-wise list of road accident data for all States. However, the age-wise split of accident victims and road accident victims mimic each other when the country-wide numbers are considered, and can be used as a proxy.
