As per figures recorded in 2008, 249 fatal accidents occurred in the city that boasts of a projected population of 25 lakhs. In all, 1503 accidents occurred in the year that claimed the lives of 264 persons. A 1465 persons were injured in these accidents that have recorded an accident severity (road accident deaths/100 accidents) of 17.6.
For a population of 1 lakh, the total number of accidents stand at 61.5 while the number of persons killed and injured stand at 10.8 and 60, respectively.
Why the ministry chose to release the report only two years later remains a question though.
Accident severity varies from a low of 2 in Mumbai to a high of about 60 in Varanasi. A number of smaller cities including Ludhiana (52), Kanpur (44), Lucknow (40) and Patna (34) have also reported very high accident severity.
If compared to bigger cities like Mumbai and Pune, Nagpur can still be tagged 'safe', as the number of fatalities are less. 589 fatal accidents occurred in Mumbai that claimed 622 lives and injured 6453 in 2008. Similarly, 458 fatal accidents occurred in Pune that claimed 477 lives and injured 1890.
The high incidents of road accidents are largely attributed to drunk driving, over speeding and minimal use of safety measures such as helmets and seat belts.
Traffic expert and secretary of International Society for Road Transport and Safety (ISRTS) Tushar Mandlekar said, "More than 400 people have lost their lives in accidents in 2009 and 2010. A three-point agenda must be followed to bring down the rate of accidents. Strict enforcement of rules, prompt medical treatment and awareness about traffic rules among drivers. The traffic and police department are absolutely corrupt and fail to implement rules. Not a single motorist wears a helmet in Nagpur. People lack awareness and drive rashly. While crores of rupees are spent in beautification of roads, not a single penny is spent in constructing a trauma care centre on highways, which are most vulnerable."
Expansion in road network, motorization and urbanization in the country is accompanied by a rise in road accidents, leading to road traffic injuries (RTIs) and fatalities as a major public health concern.
The report mentions that road traffic injuries are one of the leading causes of deaths, disabilities and hospitalizations with severe socioeconomic costs in the country. Accident survivors often live poor quality of life and have to live with pain and suffering. Their figure cannot even be guesstimated.
According to the report, accidents are an outcome of interplay of a number of factors like length of roads, vehicle population, human population and adherence/enforcement of road safety regulations. The report suggests that the only way to mitigate accident risk is by higher adherence to road safety regulations and policy enforcement.
Between 1970 and 2008, the number of accidents have quadrupled in the country with more than a 7-fold increase in injuries and more than 8-fold increase in fatalities in the backdrop of about 64-fold increase in the number registered motor vehicles and 3-fold increase in road network.
The total number of accidents reported in India in 2008 were 4,84,704, of which 1,06,591 or 22 per cent of total accidents were fatal. The number of persons killed in the accidents were 1,19,860 and the number of persons injured at 5,23,193 exceeded total number of accidents (4,84,704) in 2008.
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had a share of around 30.4% in total number of vehicles registered in 2006, accounted for about 38% of the total road accidents, 28% of the total number of persons killed and 35% of the total persons injured in road accidents in 2008.
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