Despite a slew of safety initiatives introduced on the directives of the Supreme Court, the number of road traffic deaths in Uttar Pradesh continues to climb steadily — reaching 22,256 in 2018.

In fact, the number of fatalities has grown by staggering 36.65% just in five years, says the transport department’s latest data on road accidents between January and December, 2018.

It shows that UP reported a total 42,568 cases of road mishaps in which 22,256 persons were killed and 29,664 people were injured during the period.

The number of fatalities was found to have grown by 10.59 % from the previous year (2017) when 20,124 persons were killed in 38,783 number of road accidents which grew by 7.89%.

Commenting on the report, a senior transport official, who did not wish to be identified, said, “The figures for 2018 are certainly shocking. All our efforts to reduce the number of deaths to the single digit have not been successful.”

The district-wise analysis of the data reveals that at least eight districts where the number of deaths in road accidents in 2018 was above 500, together contributed for 4,653 deaths which are 20.9% of the total fatalities during the year.

These top killer districts are Kanpur Nagar, Agra, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Mathura, Unnao, Fatehpur and Bulandshahr.

The data further revealed that during last five years the number of road accident deaths increased from 16,287 in 2014 to 22,256 in 2018 which means the fatalities during the period increased by stunning 36.65%.

Similarly, the number of accidents and the number of injured increased from 31,034 to 42,568 and from 22,337 to 29,664 respectively during the period, the rise being 37.15% and 32.8% respectively in five years.

The number of deaths in UP has been steadily rising having grown by over 36% between 2014-218 despite a Supreme Court appointed high-level committee regularly monitoring the situation every three month and issuing directions to states on how to reduce number of deaths.

“India is supposed to cut to half its road crash deaths by 2020 under a global convention but UP that alone accounts for nearly 15% of the country’s total road accident deaths is a big hindrance to the objective and the Supreme Court committee has pointed out this fact time and again,” sources said.

Poor road conditions, week enforcement of laws with regard to drunken driving, use of seatbelts and helmets and delays in the injured getting the emergency treatment are said to be some of the primary reasons for trend of growing number of road crash deaths in UP.

First Published: Mar 09, 2019 15:38 IST