20% decline in fatalities on Goa roads

PANAJI: The transport department has released the official statistics for road accidents, injuries and fatalities for the year 2018, according to which the state witnessed a 20 per cent decline in fatal road accidents.

As per the latest data, in 2018, a total of 3,709 road accidents were reported in the state, claiming 262 lives and causing injuries to 1,549 persons, which translates into 21 deaths and 129 injuries every month. In 2017, as many as 328 people were killed in road accidents.

Majority of the fatal accidents in 2018 took place due to dangerous, careless driving, overtaking and overspeeding on the state’s rural roads and national highways where accidents involving two-wheelers accounted for a major share of the fatalities.

Data available with the transport department suggests that around 145 two-wheeler riders and 37 pillion riders were killed involving as many as 2,504 two-wheelers. Similarly, 25 people were killed including drivers and passengers in accidents involving four-wheelers.

Around 346 persons sustained grievous injuries in as many as 243 serious accidents reported in different parts of the state last year between January and December.

Among vehicle categories involved in road accidents, heavy and light vehicles comprising cars, jeeps, buses, tankers and tempos accounted for the highest share of 60.50 per cent in total number of accidents and 9.6 per cent in total fatalities. Two-wheelers as a category came a distant second with a share of 40 per cent in total number of accidents and fatalities (74 per cent) in 2018.

In terms of road-user categories, the pedestrian road-users comprised 19.7 per cent of persons killed in road accidents in 2018.