'TN spike due to robust data collection, reconciliation'

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu, which had become an example for other states by reducing road deaths for three consecutive years starting 2017, reported a 90% spike in such fatalities last year over the number of deaths in 2020. While this comes as a surprise, sources said the sharp rise in fatalities was due to "robust and scientific" collection and reconciliation of road crash data.
While all states and Union Territories barring Manipur, Nagaland and Puducherry recorded increase in road deaths in 2021 over the previous year, in Tamil Nadu a record 15,384 people lost their lives last year. A comparative study of data from 2017 to 2020 shows that the southern state was successful in bringing down road fatalities from 16,157 to 8,059 during this period.
The state had claimed to have deployed a scientific and real time data collection system from accident spots and strategic positioning of ambulances for quick transfer of accident victims to the nearest hospital. "A lot of work is being done to reconcile the road death data and address the issues rather than putting blame on any particular agency," said a source. Recently, there were reports that 22,000 people had died in road crashes in between 2017 and 2020 in Tamil Nadu, but these fatalities were not recorded. This was unveiled by a special task force which was formed to reduce accidents.
According to the reconciled data, the number of fatalities in 2017 has increased from 16,157 to 17,926. In 2018, the fatalities rose from 12,216 to 18,394 and in 2019 it went up from 10,525 to 18,129. In 2020, the state had initially claimed road accident fatalities of 8,059 which now has been put at 14,527.