Over-speeding of vehicles on national highways and expressways of the country are turned out to be a major cause of road accidents and deaths. According to the latest data released by the Central government after two years, 1,31,714 people died in a total of 3,66,138 road accidents in 2020.

As per the data, the number of accidents, injuries, and deaths has decreased since 2019. It is to be noted here that 65-72 percent of the total road accidents have occurred on straight highways during the day and in clear weather where the probability of an accident is supposed to be low whereas only 15.2 percent of accidents occurred on fast mode, potholed and bad highways. 69 percent of accidents are caused by the over-speeding of vehicles.

As per the data, Road Accidents in India 2020, released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on May 25, 2022, there were 1,31,714 road accidents in 2019, which is 18.5 percent less than the total of 3,66,138 of 2020. In 2019, 1,51,113 people died in accidents while in 2020, 1,31,714 (less than 12.8%) died. At the same time, 4,51,361 people were injured in 2019 and 3,48,279 (22.8 percent less) were injured in 2020.

According to the statistics, 69 percent of the dead in the accidents are in the age group of 18 to 45 years. If people in the age group of 18 to 60 years are included, the percentage will reach 87.4 percent. Of the total accidents in the country, 47.4 percent of accidents, 53.7 percent of deaths and 48 percent of injuries occurred in places where there was open space i.e. the traffic could be seen far away, and there was no rain or bad weather.

As always, the victims of road accidents in 2020 were riding two-wheelers (43.5 percent). In this, 17 percent of pedestrians have lost their lives to road accidents. The number of vehicle collisions in rural areas, 68 percent, is higher than in urban areas, 32 percent.

The Central Government believes that the main reason for the drop in the number of road accidents, dead, and injured in 2020 has been better traffic management. Apart from this, the new Motor Vehicle Act has also contributed to the reduced number of road accidents and deaths due to heavy fines for breaking traffic rules, confiscation of vehicles, and provision of jail. Apart from this, accidents have reduced due to the Corona lockdown in 2020.