Road mishaps killed 1.55L in 2021, the highest ever: NCRB
New Delhi, September 4
Over 1.55 lakh lives were lost in road crashes across India in 2021 — an average of 426 daily or 18 every hour — which is the highest casualty figure recorded any year so far, according the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). As many as 3.71 lakh people sustained injuries in over 4.03 lakh road mishaps.
The NCRB, which functions under the administrative control of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, said in the report that the rate of deaths per thousand vehicles in 2021 (0.53) was higher than that in 2020 (0.45) and 2019 (0.52), but lower than 2018 (0.56) and 2017 (0.59). In 2020, the year of lockdowns, there were 3.54 lakh road accidents, in which 1.33 lakh persons died while another 3.35 lakh were injured, according to the data.
The NCRB’s data for 2021 also suggests that public transport, like buses, were safer than private modes of conveyance. Careless driving or overtaking contributed to 25.7 per cent road accidents.
