Uttar Pradesh has highest number of road accident deaths in country: Central government report

LUCKNOW: Five people died on the Agra-Lucknow expressway on Tuesday. A day earlier, on Monday, at least four others had lost their lives on the same route and several others have met with fatal accidents in the state in the month of June alone.
As per the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) report of 2019, Uttar Pradesh (UP) made up for the largest share - 15% of total road accident deaths in the country. In 2019, the state had witnessed 22,655 deaths due to road accidents, which was the highest across India.
MoRTH has not yet released its national report for 2020 and 2021.
With 19,731 fatal road accidents, UP has the infamous reputation of the highest number of fatal road accidents in the country too, as per MoRTH.
As per the MoRTH report, the maximum number of road accidents and deaths in UP are due to over-speeding. In the year 2019, there were 15,934 over speeding incidents causing death of 8,398 people.
The second highest number of accidents in 2019, took place due to driving on the wrong side - 4988 accidents, which caused 2517 deaths. UP contributed the maximum number of over speeding deaths in the country that year.
Another common reason for road accidents in UP is the use of mobile phones which caused 4,882 accidents and death of 2,969 people. This is also the maximum data in this category as against any other state in the country.
Other causes of road accidents include drunken driving/consumption - 4496 accidents and 2,224 deaths, and jumping red lights which caused 874 accidents and 297 deaths.
Working with the state government for reducing accidents on the Yamuna Expressway, founder and CEO of SaveLife Foundation (SLF), Piyush Tewari told TOI, "In 2019, UP suffered 22,655 road crash deaths and close to 29,000 injuries in road crashes. The high numbers are attributable to the deadly mix of poor road-user behaviour and road infrastructure issues. For instance, in 2019, over 1000 people died in the state due to potholes alone. Similarly, conflict between fast-moving traffic and slower, more vulnerable road-users, such as pedestrians leads to a large number of fatalities and injuries."
"Close to 40% overspeeding incidents also happen because of improper parking", he added.
Taking cognizance of this issue, the state government along with SLF has identified high-fatality roads, such as Yamuna Expressway and NH 2 for interventions under project 'Vision Zero’
"Forensic investigation of crashes has been introduced to identify human causes of crashes but also those related to road infrastructure and vehicles. The identified issues are addressed expeditiously, such as the installation of a median crash barrier on the Yamuna Expressway," Tewari said.