Accidents claimed nearly 48,000 lives on National Highways last year: Government

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said 53,872 people died due to road accidents on National Highways, including on expressways, in 2019.

Gadkari said the major causes of the accidents on the NHs were vehicle design and condition, road engineering, speeding, drunken driving/ consumption of alcohol and drugs, driving on the wrong side, jumping the red light, use of mobile phones, etc.

He also said  the ministry has issued guidelines  for improving the road safety through safety audits at all stages — design stage, construction stage and O&M stage— by engaging independent road safety experts.

Replying to a separate question, Gadkari said during the oxygen crisis in March-April 2021, shortage of technically qualified trained drivers to handle Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) tankers was reported.

“Taking into account the continuous rise in requirement for transportation of liquid oxygen (LOX), extended period of oxygen management, addition to the inventory of cryogenic tankers and high fatigue/ attrition rate due to 24X7 operations, the ministry issued advisory to states to create a pool of trained drivers for transporting hazardous cargo,” he said.

Replying to another question, Gadkari said the total black spots identified on National Highways based on the data during the period from year 2016 to 2018 is 5,803.

He said five states/UTs, namely Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh  have provided the facility of online filing of e-FIR for complaints of theft of vehicles, mobile phones and documents where accused are unknown, through their State Citizen Service Portals.