National highways in south account for most road accidents, black spots; UP, Tamil Nadu top among states

Given the regional disparities in the national highway network in India and the concentration of traffic-related injuries to a few states or regions, a localised approach to road safety may be more suited In India, every year more people die of road traffic injuries or road accidents than of malaria, tuberculosis or HIV. Region States Year 2018 Year 2019 Year 2020 South Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Goa, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Puducherry 59280 57457 48476 North Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand 17014 16843 14219 North West Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Chandigarh, Delhi and Rajasthan 18307 17118 13867 Central Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh 13962 14251 13296 East West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand 13910 14285 12884 West Gujarat, Maharashtra, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu 13352 11871 9735 North East Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura 5018 5366 3986 Grand Total 140843 137191 116496 SOURCE: Press Information Bureau, Government of India Among other regions, in 2002, north reported the second-highest road accidents in 2020. Uttar Pradesh, which had 8,712 kilometres of national highways, accounted for 13,695 road traffic injuries and Karnataka reported 11,230 road accidents. Earlier in the story, we looked at the states and regions which account for the maximum number of road accidents in national highways and expressways, now let us take a look at the concentration of black spots in the national highways and expressways from 30 states and UTs, data for which has been collected by MORTH’s Transport Research Wing. Region States Black spots South Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Goa, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Puducherry 2,493 East West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand 992 North West Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Chandigarh, Delhi and Rajasthan 967 North Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand 459 Central Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh 445 West Gujarat, Maharashtra, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu 304 North East Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura 143 Grand Total 5,803 SOURCE: Press Information Bureau, Government of India As it’s clear from the data above, national highways and expressways in south India account for the maximum number 2,493 of black spots – nearly 43 percent of the 5,803 identified by the TRP.