More lives lost in road accidents than in war: Gen VK Singh

New Delhi, May 13

India loses more people in road accidents than in a war, Union Minister General VK Singh (retd) said on Friday.  Addressing an event organised by industry body Assocham, Singh said road safety is the most important issue which the government needs to tackle.

“More than 1.35 lakh people lose their lives due to road accidents every year…this number of people whom we lose every year (due to road accidents), is worse than fighting a war,” the Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways said.

The minister lamented that unfortunately, road safety is considered something that comes once a year. “We have road safety week. We upgraded it to road safety month,” he said, adding his view is that it should be a 365-day affair.

“It’s not confined to one week, it is not confined to a month because there is so much at stake,” Singh emphasised.

According to recent government data, total 3,66,138 road accidents occurred in India during 2020, causing 1,31,714 deaths.