Don''t become ''accident capital'' of the world: SC
New Delhi, December 18
The year 2014 witnessed 2.37 lakh road accidents on national and state highways across the country that left at least 85,462 people dead and 2.59 lakh injured.
These findings in official statistics placed before the Supreme Court, which noted that as per 2009 data, India had reported the highest number of road accident fatalities in the world: the alarming data showed a road accident occurred every four minutes.
(Follow ; and )
In its judgement on December 15, the country’s highest court said that appropriate enforcement of the law against drunken driving could help India to avoid being called the "accident capital of the world".
The order was part of the court’s judgement banning liquor shops on national and state highways across the country and ordering against licences of existing shops being renewed before March 31 next year.
"Human life is precious. As the road network expands in India, road infrastructure being an integral part of economic development, accidents profoundly impact on the life of common citizen. For a nation on the cusp of economic development, India can well avoid the tag of being the accident capital of the world," a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur said.
The bench, which also had Justices DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao, took note of the statistics placed before it by the government agencies, according to which total number of persons killed in road accidents on the national highways was 48,768 in 2012: a number that rose to 51,204 in 2015.
In 2014, there were 1.24 lakh accident cases resulting in 46,110 deaths and 1.35 lakh persons injured in mishaps on the national highways while on state highways, the figure was 1.13 lakh accidents in which 1.24 lakh people were injured and 39,352 had been killed.
"The expressways witnessed 4,208 accident cases, 4,229 injured and 1,802 deaths. Figures are also available of the distribution of road accidents by causes during 2014. 1.38 lakh persons were injured in road accidents involving dangerous or careless driving and 42,127 deaths occurred.”
"Injuries caused in accidents due to over-speeding stood at 1.81 lakh while there were 48,654 deaths. 7,307 accident cases involving driving under the influence of drugs/alcohol were registered resulting in 7,398 injuries and 2,591 deaths," the Bench noted in its order. — PTI
