The National and State Highways in the State together witnessed total 85,909 accidents in which 41,143 persons were killed during the said period, revealed the RTI reply
Nagpur: The highways in Maharashtra are proving to be dangerous spots as the data obtained under Right to Information (RTI) Act reveals that on an average 20-plus persons were killed in mishaps on National and State Highways in the State in the past 67 months.
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The data also reveals that, between January 2017 and December 2021 (five years), most of the accidents reported on highways involved cars, taxis, vans and light motor vehicles.
The Nagpur-based activist Abhay Kolarkar had sought information under RTI Act regarding accidents on National and State Highways in Maharashtra for the period between January 1, 2017 and July 30, 2022, that is 67 months. Also, he sought from the office of Additional Director General of Police (Traffic), Maharashtra, the data regarding the number of accidents and people killed in mishaps on highways that involved trucks, cars and buses. Further, Kolarkar sought information about the number of accidents and persons killed specifically on Nagpur-Pune and Nagpur-Mumbai highways.
To this particular query, the authority concerned replied that such information was not collected in the records. As per the information Kolarkar received from the office concerned, Maharashtra reported 46,377 accidents on National Highways in the State. In these accidents, 21,974 persons were killed. As far as State Highways are concerned, a total of 39,532 accidents were reported from January 2017 to July 2022. In these accidents, a total 19,169 persons lost their lives. Thus, National and State Highways together saw a total 85,909 accidents in which 41,143 persons were killed. This works out to average 20-plus deaths in mishaps on National and State Highways in Maharashtra daily.
Compared to accidents on State Highways, the number was higher in case of National Highways. Similarly, the number of persons killed on National Highways was more than that on State Highways. A look at the year-wise data reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic years — 2020 and 2021 — saw a relatively lesser number of accidents. However, among these two years, 2021 saw more accidents than 2020.
The RTI reply further said that in the first seven months of the current year (2022), Maharashtra has seen 5,423 accidents on National Highways and 2,842 persons killed in them. Total 4,209 accidents in which 2,375 persons were killed were reported on State Highways. If one works out average projections, the number of persons killed in the first seven months of the current year appears to be on a higher side as compared to that in the previous five years.
The data obtained by Kolarkar reveals an important aspect regarding the mishaps on highways. As the data is compiled only annually as far as vehicles involved in mishaps is concerned, Kolarkar got the data in this regard for the period of five years — 60 months from January 2017 to December 2021. As per this data, this period saw 46,344 involving trucks/lorries, cars/taxis/vans/light motor vehicles, and buses. In these many accidents, 16,587 persons were killed.
However, within these three categories, as many as 60 per cent of the mishaps and over 58 per cent of the number of persons killed involved cars, taxis, vans, and light motor vehicles. The number of mishaps and persons killed was lesser in case of trucks/lorries, and even lesser in case of buses.
