Analysis of Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India: A 2015 Report

The recently released “Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India” 2015 report published by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) revealed an increase of 5.1% in total accident fatalities in the country, from 1,41,526 in 2014 to 1,48,707 in 2015.

Highlights of the data:

• 53 cases of road accidents took place every one hour during 2015, wherein 17 persons were killed
• Children below the age of 18 years contribute to 10.5 percent of all fatalities
• 635% more children died in road crashes than crimes committed against them in 2015
• Maximum fatalities in road accidents were reported in Uttar Pradesh at 12.4% (18,407 out of 1,48,707) followed by Tamil Nadu (10.5%) and Maharashtra (9.2%) during 2015
• Tamil Nadu (69,059 cases), followed by Karnataka (44,011 cases), Maharashtra (42,250 cases), Madhya Pradesh (40,859 cases) and Kerala (39,014 cases) have reported the maximum number of road accidents accounting for 14.9%, 9.5%, 9.1%, 8.8% and 8.4% of such accidents in the country respectively
• Most of the road accidents were due to over speeding accounting for 43.7% of total accidents which caused 60,969 deaths and 2,12,815 persons injured
• Two wheelers have accounted for maximum fatal road accidents (43,540), contributing 29.3 percent of total road accidental deaths
• Dangerous/careless driving or overtaking caused 1,46,059 road accidents which resulted in 48,093 deaths and 1,51,231 persons injured during 2015. Besides, 3.7% of road accidents were due to poor weather condition

This data from 2015 released by the National Crime Records Bureau of the Ministry of Home Affairs in December 2016 shows variance from the Road Accidents in India 2015 report by Transport Research Wing of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. According to the TRW report, 146133 people were killed in road crashes in 2015, while the ADSI reports 148707 fatalities in 2015, a difference of 2574 lives. These discrepancies in data highlight the need for a uniform data collection and scientific road crash investigation mechanisms in India.