NEW DELHI: The figures for those killed killed on the roads in India came down by 4,560 or 3% in 2017 from 1.51 lakh the previous year, the
Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety said in a report to the apex court on Wednesday. While Punjab,
West Bengal and
Gujarat have shown a decline,
Bihar, UP, Odisha and MP have reported more deaths.
Data show the number of fatalities increased in the October-December period, which proved to be a spoiler to the projection of the total reduction in fatalities by more than 5,000 during the calendar year which saw 1,46,377 lives lost on the roads. Till September last year, the fall in total road deaths was 5,003. Sources said this shows how there is a need to have continuous and concerted efforts to check fatalities due to road accidents. The data show that maximum decline in terms of absolute number was reported from
Tamil Nadu which saw deaths come down by 1,061 last year in comparison to 2016. Percentage wise the steepest decline was in Punjab at 15.7%.
UP has again recorded the maximum number of road fatalities of over 20,000 last year. Delhi has reported reduction of only seven deaths in 2017 in comparison to the previous year while Chandigarh has recorded 44 less deaths.India has the highest number of road deaths across the globe. One in every 10 deaths is reported from India.
